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:
Jun. 01, 2010
Filed:
Jan. 29, 2009
Method and apparatus for a process, voltage, and temperature variation tolerant semiconductor device
Guo Jun Ren, San Jose, CA (US);
Qi Zhang, Chandler, AZ (US);
Ketan Sodha, Fremont, CA (US);
XILINX, INC., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus to reduce the degradation in performance of semiconductor-based devices due to process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) and/or other causes of variation. Adaptive feedback mechanisms are employed to sense and correct performance degradation, while simultaneously facilitating configurability within integrated circuits (ICs) such as programmable logic devices (PLDs). A voltage-feedback mechanism is employed to detect PVT variation and mirrored current references are adaptively adjusted to track and substantially eliminate the PVT variation. More than one voltage-feedback mechanism may instead be utilized to detect PVT-based variations within a differential device, whereby a first voltage-feedback mechanism is utilized to detect common-mode voltage variation and a second voltage-feedback mechanism produces mirrored reference currents to substantially remove the common-mode voltage variation and facilitate symmetrical operation of the differential device. Edge boosting modules are employed to improve performance during reduced output common mode voltage modes of operation.