Granted Patent B2

US 7,642,843 · App. 12/018,375 · Granted Jan 5, 2010

Abstract

Claims (34)

1. A reference voltage generating circuit comprising:

a monitor circuit including a series circuit of a first transistor of a first conductivity type, a second transistor of a second conductivity type and a resistor having a predetermined resistance, and including an output node extracted from one end of said series circuit; and

an additional circuit including a third transistor of the first conductivity type and a fourth transistor of the second conductivity type, supplying a monitor current to said monitor circuit, and maintaining another end of said series circuit to a first substantially constant voltage which is not affected by a characteristic variation by production deviation,

wherein a reference voltage outputted from said output node is corrected within a range corresponding to the production deviation of the first and second transistors from a predetermined center value,

a threshold voltage of the first transistor is lower than a threshold voltage of the third transistor,

and a threshold voltage of the second transistor is lower than a threshold voltage of the fourth transistor.

2. The reference voltage generating circuit according to claim 1 , wherein said additional circuit further includes a fifth transistor controlling the first constant voltage of said another end to a sane voltage as a third constant voltage generated from a third reference voltage generating circuit which is not affected by temperature and production deviations, and the fifth transistor is connected between said one end and a predetermined power supply.

3. The reference voltage generating circuit according to claim 2 , wherein said additional circuit compares the first constant voltage and the third constant voltage and generates a first control voltage to control a gate voltage of the fifth transistor corresponding to a comparison result.

4. The reference voltage generating circuit according to claim 1 , wherein sizes of the first and second transistors are adjusted beforehand so that a voltage value of the reference voltage is increased by a predetermined amount when operation delay is increased due to the production deviation while the voltage value of the reference voltage is reduced by a predetermined amount when the operating delay is reduced due to the production deviation.

5. The reference voltage generating circuit according to claim 4 , wherein the first and second transistors have commonly connected gates and commonly connected drains.

6. A semiconductor integrated circuit device comprising:

an internal circuit to which an internal power supply voltage is supplied, the internal circuit including a low threshold voltage transistor which is a transistor having a threshold voltage lower than a standard transistor having a standard threshold voltage;

a temperature sensor circuit detecting a temperature within a predetermined temperature range; and

a plurality of reference voltage generating circuits each adjusted corresponding to the temperature detected by said temperature sensor circuit, and each generating a reference voltage used as a reference for said internal circuit,

wherein each of said plurality of reference voltage generating circuits includes:

a monitor circuit including a series circuit of a first transistor of a first conductivity type, a second transistor of a second conductivity type and a resistor having a predetermined resistance, and including an output node extracted from one end of said series circuit; and

an additional circuit including a third transistor of the first conductivity type as the standard transistor and an fourth transistor of the second conductivity type, supplying a monitor current to said monitor circuit, and controlling another end of said series circuit to a first constant voltage which is not affected characteristic variation by production deviation,

a reference voltage outputted from said output node is corrected within a range corresponding to the production deviation of a voltage value of the first and second transistors from a predetermined center value,

a threshold voltage of the first transistor is lower than a threshold voltage of the third transistor,

and a threshold voltage of the second transistor is lower than a threshold voltage of the fourth transistor.

7. The semiconductor integrated circuit device according to claim 6 , further comprising a selector,

wherein the selector selects one of a plurality of reference voltages outputted as a reference voltage used as a reference for said internal circuit from said plurality of reference voltage generating circuits, corresponding to temperature detected by said temperature sensor circuit.

8. The semiconductor integrated circuit device according to claim 6 , wherein said internal circuit includes a delay circuit including the low threshold voltage transistor to which the internal power supply voltage is supplied.

9. The semiconductor integrated circuit device according to claim 6 , further comprising a memory circuit storing data, wherein said internal circuit is a circuit including an access path to said memory circuit.

10. The semiconductor integrated circuit device according to claim 6 ,

wherein said temperature sensor circuit detects the temperature as a binary value with a boundary at a predetermined temperature,

said plurality of reference voltage generating circuits includes a first reference voltage generating circuit adjusted corresponding to low temperatures and a second reference voltage generating circuit adjusted corresponding to high temperatures,

the first reference voltage generating circuit is operated when a low temperature is detected by the temperature sensor circuit,

and the second reference voltage generating circuit is operated when a high temperature is detected by the temperature sensor circuit.

11. The semiconductor integrated circuit device according to claim 10 , wherein the resistance of the resistor and sizes of the first and second transistors are different between the first and second reference voltage generating circuits.

12. The semiconductor integrated circuit device according to claim 10 , wherein in each of the first and second reference voltage generating circuits, sizes of the first and second transistors are adjusted beforehand based on the resistance of the resistor.

13. The semiconductor integrated circuit device according to claim 6 , wherein said additional circuit further includes a fifth transistor controlling the first constant voltage of said another end to a same voltage as a third constant voltage generated from a third reference voltage generating circuit which is not affected by temperature and production deviations, and the fifth transistor is connected between said one end and a predetermined power supply.

14. The semiconductor integrated circuit device according to claim 13 , wherein said additional circuit compares the first constant voltage and the third constant voltage and generates a first control voltage to control a gate voltage of the fifth transistor corresponding to a comparison result.

15. The semiconductor integrated circuit device according to claim 14 , wherein the seizes of the first and second transistors are adjusted beforehand so that the voltage value of the reference voltage is increased by a predetermined amount when operation delay is increased due to the production deviation, the voltage value of the reference voltage is reduced by a predetermined amount when the operating delay is reduced by the production deviation.

Assignments (8)