Semiconductor integrated circuit and method of controlling the same
View Patent ↗In related arts, a body voltage needs to be controlled by separately detecting external environment such as temperature. In the related art, variation such as a process parameter for each individual product has not been considered. A semiconductor integrated circuit according to the present invention includes a comparator comparing a leak current of a first conductive type transistor with a leak current of a second conductive type transistor to output a comparing result, and a conduction control signal generator outputting a signal determining a conduction state of the first conductive type transistor and a conduction state of the second conductive type transistor in a power saving control target circuit in a power saving mode based on the comparing result.
1. A semiconductor integrated circuit, comprising:
a leak current comparator comparing a leak current of a first conductive type transistor with a leak current of a second conductive type transistor to output a comparing result; and
a conduction control signal generator outputting a signal determining a conduction state of the first conductive type transistor and a conduction state of the second conductive type transistor in a control target circuit based on the comparing result in a power saving mode.
2. The semiconductor integrated circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the leak current comparator outputs the comparing result based on a voltage decrease amount of the first conductive type transistor and a voltage decrease amount of the second conductive type transistor.
3. The semiconductor integrated circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the leak current comparator comprises a comparator comparing a potential generated by a voltage decrease amount of the first conductive type transistor and a voltage decrease amount of the second conductive type transistor connected in series with each other with a reference potential divided by a first resistance element and a second resistance element connected in series with each other.
4. The semiconductor integrated circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the conduction control signal generator receives an output of the comparing result made by the leak current comparator and a power saving mode signal output in the power saving mode, and outputs a first conduction control power saving mode signal and a second conduction control power saving mode signal into the control target circuit.
5. The semiconductor integrated circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the power saving control target circuit comprises:
a logic gate part including the first conductive type transistor and the second conductive type transistor; and
an output fixing part fixing an input logical value of the logic gate part in the power saving mode.
6. The semiconductor integrated circuit according to claim 1 , wherein
the power saving control target circuit receives an output of the comparing result made by the leak current comparator and a power saving mode signal output in the power saving mode, and outputs a first conduction control power saving mode signal and a second conduction control power saving mode signal into the control target circuit,
the power saving control target circuit comprises:
a logic gate part including the first conductive type transistor and the second conductive type transistor; and
an output fixing part fixing an input logical value of the logic gate part in the power saving mode, and
the output fixing part comprises:
a first output fixing circuit to which the first conduction control power saving mode signal is input; and
a second output fixing circuit to which the second conduction control power saving mode signal is input.
7. The semiconductor integrated circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the control target circuit forms a pipeline stage processing part in a microcomputer.
8. The semiconductor integrated circuit according to claim 7 , wherein the power saving mode signal sets the pipeline stage processing part in the microcomputer to a disable state according to a logical value of the power saving mode signal.
9. A method of controlling a semiconductor integrated circuit, the method comprising:
comparing a leak current of a first conductive type transistor with a leak current of a second conductive type transistor; and
determining a conduction state of the first conductive type transistor and a conduction state of the second conductive type transistor in a control target circuit based on a comparing result in a power saving mode.
10. The method of controlling the semiconductor integrated circuit according to claim 9 , wherein the comparing result is determined based on a voltage decrease amount of the first conductive type transistor and a voltage decrease amount of the second conductive type transistor.