Patent · US Expired

Voltage converter of semiconductor device

US5272393A · kind A · utility

53Cited by
21References
2Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 12, 1991
Grant dateDec 21, 1993
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 12, 2011

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG05F1/465
  • WIPO fieldControl
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

In a voltage converter provided in a semiconductor device and supplying an internal supply voltage to a circuit in the semiconductor device, a circuit is provided for generating a first voltage whose dependency on an external supply voltage is regulated to a predetermined small value, while another circuit is provided for generating a second voltage whose dependency on the external supplying voltage is larger than the dependency of the first voltage. Another circuit selects the first voltage when the semiconductor device is in a state of a standard operation and selects the second voltage when the device is in another state of operation, such as testing or aging. The selected voltage may be converted by a differential amplifier which is constituted by a load of P-channel MOS transistors and a source-coupled pair of N-channel MOS transistors. An output of the differential amplifier is fed back through a directly coupled voltage lowering circuit which generates the converted output.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.