Adaptive Supply Voltage Glitch Detection in Monolithic ICs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Establishing operating condition margins for monolithic integrated circuit devices is challenging, leading to false triggers or nonresponsiveness due to narrow or broad margins in supply voltage detection.
Innovation Solution
An adaptive supply voltage glitch detector is implemented, which configures detection thresholds based on the device's mode of operation, allowing for dynamic adjustment of low and high voltage thresholds and glitch duration settings to prevent false alarms and ensure accurate monitoring.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If fixed detection thresholds are used for supply voltage monitoring, then the device can detect out-of-spec conditions, but false triggers occur due to narrow margins or nonresponsiveness due to broad margins
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic threshold adjustment by configuring different detection thresholds based on the device's operational mode. The supply voltage glitch detector adapts its detection criteria according to whether the device is in read, erase, or program mode, allowing optimal detection sensitivity for each operational context without causing false triggers or nonresponsiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the detection parameter (voltage threshold) based on operational conditions. By associating different threshold values with different modes of operation, the system optimizes glitch detection for each specific operational state, resolving the contradiction between detection accuracy and operational flexibility.
2Measurement precision
If narrow detection margins are used, then glitch detection sensitivity is improved, but false triggers increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different detection threshold characteristics to different operational modes. Each mode (read, erase, program) has its own optimized threshold settings tailored to its specific electrical characteristics and vulnerability to glitches, allowing high detection sensitivity without excessive false triggers for each local operational context.
Solution Approach 2:
The detection threshold dynamically adapts to the current operational mode, becoming more sensitive when needed and less sensitive when operational characteristics justify broader margins. This dynamic adjustment resolves the contradiction between detection precision and false trigger rate.
3Reliability
If broad detection margins are used, then false triggers are reduced, but the device becomes overly unresponsive to actual glitches
Solution Approach 1:
Different operational modes receive locally optimized threshold settings. Modes that can tolerate broader margins (reducing false triggers) are configured accordingly, while modes requiring higher sensitivity are given narrower margins, resolving the contradiction between reducing false triggers and maintaining detection sensitivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The detection system dynamically adjusts margin width based on operational context, being broad when it reduces false triggers and narrow when it improves detection sensitivity, thereby resolving the contradiction between these two competing requirements.
4Device complexity
If a single detection threshold is used for all modes, then device complexity is reduced, but adaptability to different operational conditions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The supply voltage glitch detector is designed as a universal circuit that can operate with multiple threshold configurations. The same detection hardware adapts its behavior based on the operational mode, providing mode-specific detection capability without requiring separate detection circuits for each mode, thus maintaining low complexity while improving adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The detection circuit dynamically reconfigures its threshold parameters based on operational mode signals, allowing a single circuit to provide adaptability across different modes without increasing hardware complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A monolithic integrated circuit device may include a supply voltage glitch detector for detecting improper supply voltage conditions. Advantageously, the detection threshold of the supply voltage glitch detector is adaptively set based on the mode of operation of the device or a particular part of the device, which is internally known to the device based on certain inputs received by the device, such as commands, interrupts, control signals, and so forth.