Controlling voltage generation and voltage comparison

摘要

An integrated circuit has voltage generating circuitry for generating an on-chip voltage from a supply voltage in response to clock pulses. Clock control circuitry controls transmission of the clock pulses to the voltage generating circuitry. The clock control circuitry receives a reference voltage and a digital offset value comprising a binary numeric value identifying an offset. The clock control circuitry suppresses transmission of the clock pulses if the on-chip voltage is greater than the sum of the reference voltage and the offset identified by the digital offset value, to reduce power consumption. The offset can be tuned digitally to vary the average level of the on-chip voltage. A similar digital tuning mechanism may be used in a clocked comparator to compare a first voltage with a digitally tunable threshold voltage.

主权项

1. An integrated circuit comprising:
voltage generating circuitry configured to receive a supply voltage and to generate an on-chip voltage from the supply voltage in response to clock pulses of a voltage generation clock signal; a circuit block configured to receive the on-chip voltage from the voltage generating circuitry; and clock control circuitry configured to control transmission of the clock pulses of the voltage generation clock signal to the voltage generating circuitry; wherein the clock control circuitry is configured to receive a reference voltage and a digital offset value comprising a binary numeric value identifying an offset; and the clock control circuitry is configured to suppress transmission of the clock pulses of the voltage generation clock signal to the voltage generating circuitry if the on-chip voltage is greater than the sum of the reference voltage and the offset identified by the digital offset value.