TRANSISTOR BULK CONTROL FOR COMPENSATING FREQUENCY AND/OR PROCESS VARIATIONS

摘要

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling a bulk voltage supplied to at least one transistor means of a controlled circuit (260) of an integrated circuit, wherein at least one sensing transistor means is provided adjacent to the at least one transistor means of the controlled circuit (260), and at least one reference transistor means is provided at a location remote from the at least one transistor means of the controlled circuit (260). A predetermined bias voltage is applied to the at least one reference transistor means, and the bulk voltage is controlled based on a comparison of a sensed threshold voltage of the at least one sensing transistor means and a sensed threshold voltage of the at least one reference transistor means. Thereby, process variation can be compensated. Alternatively or additionally, an information indicating a relation between a frequency information and a desired threshold voltage of the at least one transistor means of the controlled circuit (270) may be stored, and the bulk voltage may be controlled to an optimized value based on the stored relation with respect to a frequency of an input signal of the integrated circuit.