Renesas Electronics Corporation

Yuko Kitaji

Kazuki Fukuoka

Toshifumi Uemura

Ryo Mori

Akira Murayama

Yosuke Okazaki

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

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.

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Tokyo, Japan

Yuko Kitaji