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US 2016/0112042 A1Published application
Gate Leakage Based Low Power Circuits
AssigneeAmbiq Micro, Inc.
InventorsScott Hanson, Donald Mark Bartlett, Yanning Lu
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Abstract
A low power voltage divider facility using gate leakage characteristics to divide voltage levels of sub-threshold and near-threshold circuits. The divider comprises a gate leakage based divider facility, and, optionally, a capacitive divider facility.
Claims37
A voltage divider facility comprising:
- a first gate leakage-based divider facility coupled between first and second voltages and adapted to develop a first divided voltage intermediate the first and second voltages;
- and
- a first capacitive facility coupled between the first and second voltages and adapted to adjust a transient behavior of the first gate-leakage based divider facility.
A voltage divider facility comprising:
- a first gate leakage-based divider facility coupled between first and second voltages and adapted to develop a first divided voltage intermediate the first and second voltages;
- wherein said first gate leakage-based divider facility further comprises:
- a first MOS transistor adapted to:
- receive said first voltage at a gate terminal of said first MOS transistor;
- and
- output said first divided voltage at a source and a drain terminal of said first MOS transistor;
- a second MOS transistor adapted to:
- receive said first divided voltage at a gate terminal of said second MOS transistor;
- and
- couple to a second voltage at a source and a drain terminal of said second MOS transistor;
- wherein said first gate leakage-based divider facility further comprises a plurality of parallel connected MOS transistors;
- and
- wherein the first gate leakage-based divider facility further comprises one or more switches to select one or more of said plurality of parallel connected MOS transistors.
10 more elements
A voltage divider facility comprising:
- a first gate leakage-based divider facility coupled between first and second voltages and adapted to develop a first divided voltage intermediate the first and second voltages;
- wherein said first gate leakage-based divider facility further comprises:
- a first MOS transistor adapted to:
- receive said first voltage at a gate terminal of said first MOS transistor;
- and
- output said first divided voltage at a source and a drain terminal of said first MOS transistor;
- a second MOS transistor adapted to:
- receive said first divided voltage at a gate terminal of said second MOS transistor;
- and
- couple to a second voltage at a source and a drain terminal of said second MOS transistor;
- and
- wherein said first gate leakage-based divider facility further comprises one or more switches to select one or more of said first MOS transistor and said second MOS transistor.
9 more elements
A method for dividing a voltage, the method comprising the steps of:
- [1] developing a divided voltage as a function of said voltage using a gate leakage-based divider facility;
- and
- [2] applying an adjustment function to said divided voltage using a capacitance-based divider facility.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.