Semiconductor device having boosting circuit
AssigneeElpida Memory, Inc.
InventorsHiroki FUJISAWA, Shuichi KUBOUCHI, Hitoshi TANAKA
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A semiconductor device includes a boosting circuit that boosts an internal power supply voltage in a boosting range according to an external power supply voltage, an external voltage-level comparison circuit that compares the external power supply voltage and a predetermined reference voltage, and a variable resistor circuit that includes a variable resistor connected to an output terminal of the boosting circuit. The variable resistor circuit controls a resistance value of the variable resistor based on a comparison result of the external voltage-level comparison circuit.
Claims21
(canceled)
A method of providing a voltage to an internal circuit of a semiconductor device, said method comprising:
- receiving an external voltage at a power supply terminal of said semiconductor device;
- boosting said received voltage;
- and
- supplying said boosted voltage to said internal circuit through a variable resistor circuit serially interconnected between said internal circuit and an output node of a circuit providing said boosting.
A method of providing a voltage to an internal circuit of a semiconductor device with a predetermined controlled amount of ripple, said method comprising:
- providing a reference voltage at least substantially equal to a predetermined standard value of a voltage of an external power supply voltage;
- receiving an external voltage at a power supply terminal of said semiconductor device;
- boosting said received voltage;
- supplying said boosted voltage through a resistor circuit serially interconnected between said internal circuit and an output node of a circuit providing said boosting;
- and
- smoothing a voltage at an output of said resistor circuit,
- wherein a resistance of said resistor circuit is controlled based on a comparison with said reference voltage.
A method of reducing a size of a smoothing capacitor needed to provide an expected voltage to an internal circuit of a semiconductor device, said method comprising:
- receiving an external voltage at a power supply terminal of said semiconductor device;
- boosting said received voltage;
- supplying said boosted voltage to said internal circuit through a resistor circuit serially interconnected between said internal circuit and an output node of a circuit providing said boosting;
- and
- controlling said resistor circuit resistance by comparing a reference voltage with said received external voltage, wherein said reference voltage is set as at least substantially equal to an expected standard value of said received external voltage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.