The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 13, 1999
Filed:
Dec. 26, 1996
David Ling, Austin, TX (US);
Lloyd Paul Matthews, Buda, TX (US);
Thomas Lovell Portlock, Austin, TX (US);
Edward John Hathaway, Austin, TX (US);
Motorola Inc., Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
A Voltage Range Detection Circuit (VRDC) (8) determines the supply voltage range of the integrated circuit. In general, voltage detector (10) determines the voltage level of supply voltage V.sub.DD and stores the result of this determination in storage (12). Resistor network (14), which receives the stored result, configures itself in the proper resistor configuration for the determined supplied voltage such that a compare signal is generated that represents a Variable Low Voltage Detection (VLVD) switch point. Resistor network (14) outputs this generated VLVD switch point signal to a first input of comparator (18) to be compared with the constant level reference voltage output by voltage reference (16) at a second input of comparator (18). When the output of resistor network (14) drops below the reference voltage provided by voltage reference (16), comparator (18) outputs a reset signal to disable the chip because a low voltage condition has occurred. As will be appreciated, this single circuit implementation eliminates the need to provide multiple low voltage detection circuits to sense each of the possible voltage operating ranges.