IP Library Granted Patent US 10,833,656
Granted Patent B2
US 10,833,656 · App. 15/966,889 · Granted Nov 10, 2020

Autonomous duty cycle calibration

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,833,656
App. No.
15/966,889
Granted
Nov 10, 2020
Kind
B2
Abstract

Several embodiments of electrical circuit devices and systems with clock distortion calibration circuitry are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, an electrical circuit device includes clock distortion calibration circuitry to calibrate a clock signal. The clock distortion calibration circuitry is configured to determine when one or more duty cycle calibration (DCC) conditions are met. When the DCC condition(s) are met, the clock distortion calibration circuitry is configured adjust a trim value associated with at least one of first and second duty cycles of first and second voltage signals, respectively. In some embodiments, the clock distortion calibration circuitry is configured to calibrate at least one of the first and the second duty cycles of the first and the second voltage signals using the adjusted trim value to account for duty cycle distortion encountered across various voltages and/or temperatures while the electrical circuit devices and/or systems remain in a powered on state.

Claims (31)

1. A memory device comprising clock distortion calibration circuitry configured to:

determine when a duty cycle calibration (DCC) condition is met, wherein the DCC condition is the memory device not executing a data read operation; and

in response to determining the DCC condition is met, adjust a trim value associated with at least one of first and second duty cycles of first and second voltage signals, respectively.

2. The memory device of claim 1 , wherein the clock distortion calibration circuitry is further configured to calibrate at least one of the first and the second duty cycles of the first and the second voltage signals using the adjusted trim value.

3. The memory device of claim 2 , wherein the clock distortion calibration circuitry is configured to calibrate the at least one of the first and the second duty cycles using the adjusted trim value only when all steps of a binary search are complete.

4. The memory device of claim 2 , wherein the clock distortion calibration circuitry is configured to adjust the trim value and/or to calibrate the at least one of the first and the second duty cycles as a background operation of the memory device and/or while the memory device is idle.

5. The memory device of claim 2 , wherein the clock distortion calibration circuitry is further configured to automatically determine when the DCC condition is met, adjust the trim value, and/or calibrate the at least one of the first and the second duty cycles.

6. The memory device of claim 1 , wherein the clock distortion calibration circuitry is further configured to disable short input/output pause operations of the memory device.

7. The memory device of claim 2 , wherein the clock distortion calibration circuitry is further configured to stop and/or pause adjustment of the trim value and/or calibration of the at least one of the first and the second duty cycles when the DCC conditions is not met.

8. The memory device of claim 1 , wherein the DCC condition is a first DCC condition, and wherein the clock distortion calibration circuitry is further configured to:

determine when a second DCC condition is met, wherein the second DCC condition is autonomous DCC being enabled; and

in response to determining that the first and the second DCC conditions are met, adjust the trim value associated with the at least one of the first and second duty cycles of the first and second voltage signals, respectively.

9. The memory device of claim 1 , wherein the DCC condition is a first DCC condition, and wherein the clock distortion calibration circuitry is further configured to:

determine when a second DCC condition is met, wherein the second DCC condition is a predetermined duration of continuous read clocks and/or a predetermined number of cycles of continuous read clocks; and

in response to determining that the first and the second DCC conditions are met, adjust the trim value associated with the at least one of the first and second duty cycles of the first and second voltage signals, respectively.

10. The memory device of claim 2 , wherein the clock distortion calibration circuitry is further configured to adjust the trim value and/or calibrate the at least one of the first and the second duty cycles upon powerup of the memory device.

11. A method, comprising:

determining when a duty cycle calibration (DCC) condition is met, wherein the DCC condition is a memory device not executing a data read operation; and

adjusting a trim value using a linear search in response to determining that the DCC conditions is met, wherein the trim value is associated with at least one of first and second duty cycles of first and second voltage signals, respectively.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising calibrating at least one of the first and the second duty cycles of the first and the second voltage signals using the adjusted trim value.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising enabling autonomous DCC such that (1) the determining includes automatically determining when the DCC condition is met and (2) the adjusting and the calibrating include adjusting the trim value and calibrating the at least one of the first and the second duty cycles, respectively, as background operations.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein adjusting the trim value includes updating a least significant bit of the trim value.

15. The method of claim 11 further comprising disabling short input/output pause operations.

16. A method, comprising:

determining when one or more duty cycle calibration (DCC) conditions are met; and

adjusting a trim value using a binary search when the DCC conditions are met, wherein the binary search is performed on at least one bit of the trim value, and wherein the trim value is associated with at least one of first and second duty cycles of first and second voltage signals, respectively.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising calibrating at least one of the first and the second duty cycles of the first and the second voltage signals using the adjusted trim value only when all steps of the binary search are complete.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising enabling autonomous DCC such that (1) the determining includes automatically determining when DCC conditions are met and (2) the adjusting and the calibrating include adjusting the trim value and calibrating the at least one of the first and the second duty cycles, respectively, as background operations.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein adjusting the trim value includes updating a least significant bit of the trim value over at least two update operations.

20. The method of claim 16 , wherein the adjusting the trim value includes updating a most significant bit of the trim value over a single update operation.

21. The method of claim 16 , wherein the DCC conditions include a semiconductor device not executing a data read operation.

Assignments (5)
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Nov 12, 2019
From: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
To: MICRON TECHNOLOGY, INC.; MICRON SEMICONDUCTOR PRODUCTS, INC.
Reel/Frame 051028/0001 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Oct 11, 2019
From: MORGAN STANLEY SENIOR FUNDING, INC., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
To: MICRON TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Reel/Frame 050713/0001 →
SUPPLEMENT NO. 9 TO PATENT SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Aug 9, 2018
From: MICRON TECHNOLOGY, INC.
To: MORGAN STANLEY SENIOR FUNDING, INC., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 047282/0463 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Jul 13, 2018
From: MICRON TECHNOLOGY, INC.; MICRON SEMICONDUCTOR PRODUCTS, INC.
To: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 047540/0001 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Apr 30, 2018
From: TANG, QIANG
To: MICRON TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Reel/Frame 045672/0033 →