Asynchronous peak hold circuit on an integrated circuit trace to monitor for voltage spikes caused by an electromagnetic pulse

An integrated circuit comprising:

• a voltage regulator to provide a regulated voltage to a positive power supply trace in the integrated circuit;
• a peak hold circuit coupled to the positive power supply trace and configured to asynchronously detect a peak voltage on the positive power supply trace and hold a sensed voltage indicative of the peak voltage;
• a comparator coupled to an output of the peak hold circuit to compare the sensed voltage to a threshold voltage and supply a comparison result;
• and
• a storage location coupled to an output of the comparator and coupled to a clock signal to synchronously store, using the clock signal, the comparison result as an indication of whether the sensed voltage is above the threshold voltage.

An electromagnetic pulse detector comprising:

• a voltage regulator to supply a regulated voltage to various regions of an integrated circuit via a positive power supply trace in the integrated circuit;
• a peak hold circuit coupled to the positive power supply trace and configured to asynchronously detect a peak voltage on the positive power supply trace and hold a voltage indicative of the peak voltage on the positive power supply trace;
• and
• means for determining if the voltage is above a threshold voltage thereby indicating a voltage spike caused by an electromagnetic pulse.