摘要:
Ensuring sufficient bias current is provided to a portion of a circuit containing low voltage transistors operating with a high supply voltage. Such a sufficient bias current may be ensured by generating a primary bias current from a low supply voltage and a backup bias current from a high supply voltage, and providing the backup bias current as the bias current if the primary bias current is not present. The primary bias current may be provided as the bias current when the low supply voltage is available. Thus, the backup bias current is provided as bias current in case of undesirable supply sequencing.
摘要:
A characteristic is measured on multiple portions of an integrated circuit, and the supply voltage adjusted based on the measurements. In an embodiment, the characteristic corresponds to propagation delay which indicates whether the integrated circuit is implemented with a strong, weak or nominal process corner. In general, the supply voltage can be increased in the case of a weak process corner and decreased in the case of a strong process corner.
摘要:
Techniques which allow a bit value stored/generated by integrated circuits to be changed by changing potentially only one of several masks used to fabricate the circuits. For example, when a single mask is to be re-designed to implement a design change (e.g., to fix minor bugs) and a version identifier is to be changed, the same mask can be used to implement the change in the version identifier as well. An embodiment allows the bit value to be changed any number of times by changing only one mask. As a result, the invention minimizes the number of masks that may need to be changed when implementing design changes.
摘要:
A circuit for controlling temperature of a semiconductor chip includes a first heating element that is built into the semiconductor chip. The first heating element generates heat to increase the temperature of the semiconductor chip. The chip also includes a temperature controller that is coupled to the first heating element and built into the semiconductor chip. The temperature controller controls the temperature to enable testing of the semiconductor chip at a desired temperature.
摘要:
A circuit for controlling temperature of a semiconductor chip includes a first heating element that is built into the semiconductor chip. The first heating element generates heat to increase the temperature of the semiconductor chip. The chip also includes a temperature controller that is coupled to the first heating element and built into the semiconductor chip. The temperature controller controls the temperature to enable testing of the semiconductor chip at a desired temperature.
摘要:
An aspect of the present invention provides multiple switches in a transceiver, which enable pins provided for transmission and reception to be connected to either a transmit port or a receive port, as desired during operation. As a result, the transceiver can be auto-configured to connect the specific pin, on which signals are being received, to the receive port. Similarly, the transceiver can be auto-configured to connect the specific pin, on which the signals need to be transmitted, to the transmit port. Various design considerations in providing such switches are also described.