Voltage detection circuit compensated in technology and temperature
AssigneeSGS-Thomson Microelectronics S.A.
InventorSylvie Drouot
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A voltage detection circuit includes a first resistive arm receiving an internal voltage to produce a basic current, current amplification circuitry to produce a reference current proportional to the basic current, a second resistive arm to produce a reference voltage representing the reference current, a voltage source to produce a control voltage from the reference voltage and a logic circuit to produce a binary signal from the control voltage, the state of the binary signal representing the value of the internal voltage.
Claims20
A voltage detection circuit which provides a binary signal having a state that represents a value of an internal voltage, the voltage detection circuit comprising:
- a first resistive arm which receives the internal voltage and produces a basic current,
- current amplification means which produces a reference current proportional to the basic current,
- a second resistive arm which produces a reference voltage representing the reference current,
- a voltage source which produces a control voltage from the reference voltage, and
- a logic circuit which produces the binary signal from the control voltage.
A voltage detection circuit comprising:
- a first resistive arm having an input which receives a first voltage and which outputs a first current;
- a current amplifier which amplifies said first current to produce a reference current;
- a second resistive arm which receives said reference current as an input, and outputs a corresponding reference voltage;
- a voltage source which produces a control voltage from said reference voltage;
- and
- a logic circuit which converts said control voltage to a binary signal which represents a value of said first voltage.
A voltage detecting method comprising the steps of:
- (a) converting an internal voltage to a first current;
- (b) amplifying said first current to product a reference current;
- (c) producing a reference voltage from said reference current;
- (d) converting said reference voltage to a control voltage;
- and
- (e) outputting a signal which represents a voltage level of said internal voltage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.