Patent · US Expired

Power management system for serial EEPROM device

US5371709A · kind A · utility

69Cited by
3References
9Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateApr 1, 1993
Grant dateDec 6, 1994
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 1, 2013

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11C5/143
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Power consumption of a serial EEPROM is reduced while simultaneously precluding data corruption during write operations. These results are achieved by operating a brownout detector in the device to sense EEPROM supply voltage below a predetermined level and thereupon to place the EEPROM in a reduced power mode, but only during an interval that a write sequence is taking place. Such an interval includes loading of data in a temporary storage cache and writing the loaded data into the EEPROM. At the same time that the low voltage level is detected during a write sequence, any load or write operation then in progress is aborted. The brownout detector is intentionally left disabled or in a sleep mode during any read mode or standby mode since there is no jeopardy of corrupting the EEPROM memory during those times.

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