Renesas Electronics Corporation

Toshifumi Uemura

Kazuki Fukuoka

Yuko Kitaji

Ryo Mori

Akira Murayama

Yosuke Okazaki

A semiconductor deviceincludes: a first oscillator_RCconfigured to operate at a detected voltage, the first oscillator having first temperature dependency; a second oscillator_RCconfigured to operate at the detected voltage, the second oscillator having second temperature dependency; a count unit configured to count an output of the first oscillator and an output of the second oscillator, the output of the first oscillator and the output of the second oscillator being supplied to the count unit; an arithmetic unit configured to calculate a count value CNT (T) of the first oscillator and a count value CNT (T) of the second oscillator, the count values of the first and second oscillators being counted by the count unit; and a determining unit configured to compare an output of the arithmetic unit with a threshold value to output a detected result signal corresponding to a result of the comparison.

Semiconductor device

There is a need to provide a semiconductor device, a semiconductor system, and a semiconductor device manufacturing method capable of accurately monitoring a minimum operating voltage for a monitoring-targeted circuit. A monitor portion of a semiconductor system according to one embodiment includes a voltage monitor and a delay monitor. The voltage monitor is driven by power-supply voltage SVCC different from power-supply voltage VDD supplied to an internal circuit as a monitoring-targeted circuit and monitors power-supply voltage VDD. The delay monitor is driven by power-supply voltage VDD and monitors signal propagation time for a critical path in the internal circuit. The delay monitor is configured so that a largest on-resistance of on-resistances for a plurality of transistors configuring the delay monitor is smaller than a largest on-resistance of on-resistances for a plurality of transistors configuring the internal circuit.

Semiconductor device, semiconductor system, and semiconductor device manufacturing method

A semiconductor device, a semiconductor system, and a control method of a semiconductor device are capable of accurately monitoring the lowest operating voltage of a circuit to be monitored. According to one embodiment, a monitor unit of a semiconductor system includes a voltage monitor that is driven by a second power supply voltage different from a first power supply voltage supplied to an internal circuit that is a circuit to be monitored and monitors the first power supply voltage, and a delay monitor that is driven by the first power supply voltage and monitors the signal propagation period of time of a critical path in the internal circuit.

Semiconductor device, semiconductor system, and control method of semiconductor device

A semiconductor device includes a voltage sensor which samples a power supply voltage at a speed faster than fluctuations in the power supply voltage and encodes the power supply voltage into a voltage code value. A voltage drop determination circuit detects a voltage drop based on the voltage code value, and a clock control circuit generates a clock. The clock control circuit stops the clock when the voltage drop determination circuit detects the voltage drop. The voltage drop determination circuit includes a prediction computation circuit which looks ahead a voltage value from a history of the voltage code value and predicts a variation value, and the prediction computation circuit includes a circuit for masking a prediction value if a differential value of the prediction value is continuously negative for a predetermined cycle.

Semiconductor device, semiconductor system, and control method of semiconductor device to monitor a power supply voltage

A semiconductor apparatus includes an operation oscillator, a reference oscillator, a first operation switch connected in series with the operation oscillator between a power supply potential VDD and a ground potential GND, a first reference switch connected in series with the reference oscillator between the power supply potential VDD and the ground potential GND, a second reference switch connected in parallel with the reference oscillator between the power supply potential VDD and the ground potential GND, an operation counter configured to count the number of output pulses from the operation oscillator in a measurement period, and a reference counter configured to count the number of output pulses from the reference oscillator in the measurement period.

Semiconductor apparatus, degradation value determination system and processing system

There is provided a semiconductor device that can follow a fast voltage change such as a large voltage drop occurring at the time of rapid load fluctuation. The semiconductor device includes a voltage sensor which monitors a power supply voltage at a sampling speed higher than the assumed frequency of power supply voltage fluctuation and outputs a voltage code value, a voltage drop determination circuit which determines, from the voltage code value, that a voltage drop causing a malfunction of a system occurs, and outputs a clock stop signal, and a clock control circuit which controls clock stop, restart, and frequency change.

A semiconductor integrated circuit has: a substrate; a basic logic cell placed on the substrate and configured to function as a part of a logic circuit; and a dummy cell placed on the substrate and not configured to function as a part of a logic circuit. The basic logic cell includes a diffusion layer formed in the substrate, and a distance from the diffusion layer to a boundary between the basic logic cell and another cell adjacent to the basic logic cell is equal to a first distance. The dummy cell includes a dummy diffusion layer that is a diffusion layer formed in the substrate, and a distance from the dummy diffusion layer to a boundary between the dummy cell and another cell adjacent to the dummy cell is equal to the first distance.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Toshifumi Uemura