# US 11,121,716 B2 · Semiconductor device for adjusting phases of multi-phase signals

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- Number: US 11,121,716 B2
- Document ID: US11121716B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 17/027,570
- Filed: 2020-09-21
- Published: 2021-06-03
- Granted: 2021-09-14
- Earliest claimed: 2019-12-03
- Assignees: SK hynix Inc.; Seoul National University R&Db Foundation
- Applicants: SK hynix Inc.; Seoul National University R&DB Foundation
- Inventors: Soyeong Shin; Han-Gon Ko; Deog-Kyoon Jeong
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11121716B2

## CPC

- H03L 7/0814: {the phase shifting device being digitally controlled}
- G06F 1/06: Clock generators producing several clock signals {(G06F1/08 - G06F1/14 take precedence)}
- G06F 1/10: Distribution of clock signals {, e.g. skew}
- H03K 5/131: Digitally controlled
- H03K 2005/00065: {by current control, e.g. by parallel current control transistors}
- H03L: AUTOMATIC CONTROL, STARTING, SYNCHRONISATION OR STABILISATION OF GENERATORS OF ELECTRONIC OSCILLATIONS OR PULSES (generation of oscillations H03B)
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- H03K: PULSE TECHNIQUE (measuring pulse characteristics G01R; modulating sinusoidal oscillations with pulses H03C; transmission of digital information H04L; discriminator circuits detecting phase difference between two signals by counting or integrating cycles of oscillation H03D3/04; automatic control, starting, synchronisation or stabilisation of generators of electronic oscillations or pulses where the type of generator is irrelevant or unspecified H03L; coding, decoding or code conversion, in general H03M)

## Abstract

A semiconductor device includes a signal delay circuit configured to output a plurality of multi-phase output signals by delaying a plurality of multi-phase input signals according to a plurality of delay codes, respectively; and a calibration circuit including an error detection circuit configured to provide phase difference information between signals selected among the plurality of the multi-phase output signals according to a variable delay code and a filter configured to provide the plurality of delay codes and the variable delay code, wherein the filter performs update operation to update the plurality of delay codes or the variable delay code.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A semiconductor device comprising:
a signal delay circuit configured to output a plurality of multi-phase output signals by delaying all of a plurality of multi-phase input signals according to a plurality of delay codes, respectively; and
a calibration circuit including:
an error detection circuit configured to provide phase difference information between signals selected from among the plurality of the multi-phase output signals, the phase difference information being determined according to a variable delay code, and
a filter configured to provide the plurality of delay codes and the variable delay code,
wherein the filter performs an update operation to update one or more of the plurality of delay codes or the variable delay code.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The semiconductor device of claim 1, wherein the error detection circuit comprises:
a variable delay circuit configured to delay one signal of two signals adjacent in phase among the plurality of multi-phase output signals according to the variable delay code;
a fixed delay circuit configured to delay by a fixed delay the other signal of the two signals adjacent in phase among the plurality of multi-phase output signals; and
a phase comparator configured to compare a phase of the output of the variable delay circuit and a phase of the output of the fixed delay circuit, and output a comparison signal having a low level when the phase of the output of the variable delay circuit precedes the phase of the output of the fixed delay circuit and having a high level when the phase of output of the fixed delay circuit precedes the phase of the output of the variable circuit,
wherein the phase difference information is generated from the comparison signal output of the phase comparator.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The semiconductor device of claim 2, wherein the error detection circuit further comprises:
a first mux configured to select the one signal according to a first selection signal;
a second mux configured to select the other signal according to a second selection signal;
a mux control circuit providing the first selection signal and the second selection signal;
a divider configured to generate a first clock signal by dividing an output of the fixed delay circuit by N; and
a first parallelization circuit configured to parallelize an output of the phase comparator according to an output signal of the fixed delay circuit,
wherein N corresponds to a number of the plurality of the multi-phase output signals.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The semiconductor device of claim 3,
wherein the mux control circuit outputs the first selection signal and the second selection signal so that the phase comparator outputs N comparison signals sequentially, and
wherein the first parallelization circuit parallelizes the N comparison signals to generate the phase difference information.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The semiconductor device of claim 4,
wherein the filter increases the variable delay code when the N comparison signals all have the low level,
wherein the filter decreases the variable delay code when the N comparison signals all have the high level, and
wherein the filter increases or decreases one of the plurality of delay codes when at least one of the N comparison signals has the low level and at least one other of the N comparison signals has the high level.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The semiconductor device of claim 5, wherein the filter includes a direction flag,
wherein the filter increases the one of the plurality of delay codes when the at least one of the N comparison signals has the first value, the at least one other of the N comparison signal phase difference has the second value, and the direction flag as a value corresponding to up, and
wherein the filter decreases the one of the plurality of delay codes when the at least one of the N comparison signals has the first value, the at least one other of the N comparison signal phase difference has the second value, and the direction flag as a value corresponding to down.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The semiconductor device of claim 6,
wherein the filter sets the direction flag to the value corresponding to down when none of the plurality of delay codes have a value of zero, and
wherein the filter sets the direction flag to the value corresponding to up when the direction flag has the value corresponding to down and decreasing the one of the plurality of delay codes would cause an underflow of the one of the plurality of delay codes.

### Claim 8 (depends on 6)

The semiconductor device of claim 6, wherein the filter further comprises a lookup table referred to using the phase difference information and the direction flag, wherein the lookup table stores update information of the plurality of delay codes corresponding to the phase difference information.

### Claim 9 (depends on 3)

The semiconductor device of claim 3, further comprising a second parallelization circuit configured to parallelize the second selection signal according to an output signal of the fixed delay circuit to generate signal information indicating compared signals corresponding to each of the N comparison signals.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The semiconductor device of claim 1, wherein the calibration circuit further comprises a logic circuit controlling the filter according to a first activation signal, and a signal transfer circuit transferring the plurality of multi-phase signals to the error detection circuit according to a second activation signal.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The semiconductor device of claim 1, further comprising a calibration control circuit controlling the calibration circuit according to a calibration signal.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The semiconductor device of claim 11,
wherein the calibration control circuit generates a first activation signal and a second activation signal according to the calibration signal,
wherein the first activation signal and the second activation signals are activated after the calibration signal is activated and deactivated after the calibration signal is deactivated, and
wherein the first activation signal is activated after the second activation signal is activated and deactivated before the second activation signal is deactivated.

### Claim 13

A method of operation for a semiconductor device to adjust phases of a plurality of input signals, the method comprising:
delaying the plurality of input signals by a plurality of delay codes to produce a plurality of output signals;
for each of the plurality of output signals:
generating a corresponding variable delay signal by delaying the output signal according to a variable delay code,
generating a corresponding fixed delay signal by delaying by a fixed delay an output signal corresponding to a phase adjacent to a phase corresponding to the output signal, and
generating a corresponding comparison signal by comparing a phase of the corresponding variable delay signal to a phase of the corresponding fixed delay signal, the corresponding comparison signal having a first value when the phase of corresponding variable delay signal precedes the phase of the corresponding fixed delay signal and having a second value when the phase of corresponding fixed delay signal precedes the phase of the corresponding variable delay signal; and
adjusting, according to the comparison signals corresponding to the plurality of output signals, one or more of the plurality of delay codes or the variable delay code.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, wherein adjusting the plurality of delay codes or the variable delay code comprises:
increasing the variable delay code when all of the comparison signals corresponding to the plurality of output signals have the first value; and
decreasing the variable delay code when all of the comparison signals corresponding to the plurality of output signals have the second value.

### Claim 15 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, wherein adjusting the one or more of the plurality of delay codes or the variable delay code comprises:
increasing or decreasing one of the plurality of delay codes when at least one of the comparison signals corresponding to the plurality of output signals has the first value and at least an other one of the comparison signals corresponding to the plurality of output signals has the second value.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The method of claim 15, wherein adjusting the one or more of the plurality of delay codes or the variable delay code comprises:
increasing the one of the plurality of delay codes when a direction flag has a value corresponding to up, and
decreasing the one of the plurality of delay codes when the direction flag has a value corresponding to down.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

The method of claim 16, further comprising:
setting the direction flag to the value corresponding to down when none of the plurality of delay codes has a value of zero, and
setting the direction flag to the value corresponding to up when the direction flag has the value corresponding to down and decreasing the one of the plurality of delay codes would cause an underflow of the one of the plurality of delay codes.

### Claim 18 (depends on 15)

The method of claim 15, further comprising:
determining the one of the plurality of delay codes to increase or decrease and whether to increase or decrease the one of the plurality of delay codes using a lookup table referred to using the comparison signals corresponding to the plurality of output signals and the direction flag.