Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080238536 | SUPPLY VOLTAGE GENERATING CIRCUIT - A supply voltage generating circuit that enables a reduction in chip area includes: a booster for outputting a boosted voltage upon generating the boosted voltage by charge pumping of a capacitor element; a power-supply step-down unit for stepping down voltage of an external power supply to a voltage within a breakdown-voltage range of the capacitor element, and applying the stepped-down voltage to the power supply of the booster; and a switch element for switching between application of the external power supply to the power supply of the booster directly or via the power-supply step-down unit. The booster comprises multiple stages of booster circuits. The thicknesses of gate oxide films of capacitor elements constituted by MOS transistors included in respective ones of the booster circuits are the same and are made smaller than the thickness of a gate oxide film of a MOS transistor included in a load circuit having the output of the booster at its power supply. | 10-02-2008 |
20090115402 | VOLTAGE DETECTING CIRCUIT AND SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE INCLUDING THE SAME - A voltage detecting circuit detects a voltage between first and second wirings, and comprises at least first and second transistors connected in series between the first and second wirings, wherein a first reference voltage is supplied to a gate of the first transistor, a gate and a drain of the second transistor are short-circuited, and a detection signal is output from a connection point between a drain of the first transistor and a source of the second transistor. | 05-07-2009 |
20090116329 | INTERNAL-VOLTAGE GENERATING CIRCUIT AND SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE INCLUDING THE SAME - An internal-voltage generating circuit includes a plurality of generating units connected in cascade, out of the plurality of generating units, a generating unit of relatively lower level is activated by an output of a generating unit of relatively higher level. According to the present invention, because the plural voltage generating units are connected in cascade, the voltage generating unit of lower level is not activated unless the voltage generating unit of higher level is activated. Therefore, at least the voltage generating unit of the second level and the subsequent voltage generating units consume very small power during the standby time. Consequently, total power consumption of the internal-voltage generating circuit can be reduced. | 05-07-2009 |
20090201751 | SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE IN WHICH A MEMORY ARRAY IS REFRESHED BASED ON AN ADDRESS SIGNAL - In an SDRAM of reduced current consumption, a signal RAS for performing refresh while temporally splitting refresh becomes active N times (where N is an integer and Nε2 holds) in a single refresh time period (indicated by a signal REF) to thereby refresh an internal memory array successively. The SDRAM includes a DLL circuit for aligning phase of an internal clock signal with that of an external clock signal that is externally supplied, and a DLL control circuit for exercising control so as to halt operation of the DLL circuit in an interval in which the address signal becomes active one or more times and N−1 times or fewer, this interval being included in an interval in which the signal RAS becomes active N times. The DLL control circuit counts the signal RAS and decodes the value of the count. Operation of the DLL circuit is halted while a prescribed range of count values is being decoded. | 08-13-2009 |
20100142293 | Boosting voltage generating circuit, negative voltage generating circuit, step-down voltage generating circuit, and semiconductor device - In a boosting voltage generating circuit, a boosting circuit unit generates boosting voltage according to a value of boosting voltage output by the boosting voltage generating circuit and an auxiliary boosting circuit unit supplies, immediately before electric current is consumed by a load supplied with the boosting voltage, voltage higher than the boosting voltage corresponding to the amount of current consumed by the load, to the load. The auxiliary boosting circuit unit raises the voltage supplied to the load to an optimum amount before the boosting voltage drops. | 06-10-2010 |
20100309735 | INTERNAL POWER SUPPLY CIRCUIT, SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE, AND SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE MANUFACTURING METHOD - An internal power supply circuit supplies a power supply voltage to an internal circuit of a semiconductor device via an internal power supply line. The internal power supply circuit includes a reference potential generating circuit that is configured to generate a plurality of reference potentials having different temperature dependencies from each other, an internal voltage generating circuit that generates the power supply voltage with reference to a reference potential generated by the reference potential generating circuit, and a control circuit that selects a reference potential to be generated by the reference potential generating circuit. | 12-09-2010 |
20110127850 | Semiconductor device having internal volatage generating circuit - To include an internal voltage generating circuit that includes a capacitor having a first electrode and a second electrode and generates an internal voltage by repeating a charge operation for charging the capacitor to a VDD level and a discharge operation for applying the VDD level to the first electrode of the capacitor to generate a voltage of two times the VDD level on the second electrode, and a control circuit that performs a control to apply a voltage that is lower than the VDD level to the capacitor when the internal voltage generating circuit is in a standby state. According to the present invention, when the internal voltage generating circuit is in a standby state, because a voltage applied to both ends of the capacitor is reduced, it is possible to reduce the power consumption due to a leakage current. | 06-02-2011 |
20130265103 | SUPPLY VOLTAGE GENERATING CIRCUIT - A supply voltage generating circuit that enables a reduction in chip area includes: a booster for outputting a boosted voltage upon generating the boosted voltage by charge pumping of a capacitor element; a power-supply step-down unit for stepping down voltage of an external power supply to a voltage within a breakdown-voltage range of the capacitor element, and applying the stepped-down voltage to the power supply of the booster; and a switch element for switching between application of the external power supply to the power supply of the booster directly or via the power-supply step-down unit. The booster comprises multiple stages of booster circuits. The thicknesses of gate oxide films of capacitor elements constituted by MOS transistors included in respective ones of the booster circuits are the same and are made smaller than the thickness of a gate oxide film of a MOS transistor included in a load circuit having the output of the booster at its power supply. | 10-10-2013 |
20140375369 | SUPPLY VOLTAGE GENERATING CIRCUIT - A supply voltage generating circuit that enables a reduction in chip area includes: a booster for outputting a boosted voltage upon generating the boosted voltage by charge pumping of a capacitor element; a power-supply step-down unit for stepping down voltage of an external power supply to a voltage within a breakdown-voltage range of the capacitor element, and applying the stepped-down voltage to the power supply of the booster; and a switch element for switching between application of the external power supply to the power supply of the booster directly or via the power-supply step-down unit. The booster comprises multiple stages of booster circuits. The thicknesses of gate oxide films of capacitor elements constituted by MOS transistors included in respective ones of the booster circuits are the same and are made smaller than the thickness of a gate oxide film of a MOS transistor included in a load circuit having the output of the booster at its power supply. | 12-25-2014 |