Patent Application
20120134060
This invention in general relates to electronic devices and more specifically to an electronic device with an application circuit and a protection circuit for protecting the application circuit from an injected current.
Electronic devices such as semiconductor integrated circuit devices are usually designed to function correctly with voltage levels between a positive supply voltage and a negative supply voltage or a ground potential. However, pushing a pin or terminal of an electronic device below the ground potential or above the positive supply voltage level may occur under certain circumstances. For example, an apparatus using circuitry requiring more than one supply voltage may malfunction and apply a higher voltage to a circuit requiring the lower supply voltage. This may cause injection of a current into the low voltage circuit or a connected circuit, harming correct functionality or even damaging or destroying the circuit.
Current injection may also be caused by excessive electrostatic discharge (ESD), when the electronic device is connected to an external terminal or pin. ESD is a sudden and momentary electric current that flows between two objects at different electrical potentials caused by direct contact or induced by an electrostatic field. ESD may for example be caused by human handling of the chip. It can result from electrostatic electricity, for example caused by tribocharging or by electrostatic induction when an electrically charged object is placed near a conductive object isolated from ground. An ESD event may occur when this object comes into contact with a conductive path. Due to size reduction in IC technologies, reduction of layer sizes has increased circuit sensitivity against ESD. Therefore, ESD protection has become an important focus of circuit development.
Current injection into pins or terminals of a silicon device may for example lead to device malfunction by means of carrier interaction in the substrate or by unwanted supply level modification which may hamper correct operation of the device or damage the device.
In the example shown in
If for example supply rail 22 provides Vcc and supply rail 24 provides ground level, an injected positive current, indicated by dashed arrow 30, can lift the supply voltage and inject majority carriers into the substrate of the semiconductor device in the case of p-type substrate based technology. For n-type substrate technology, this may inject minority carriers into the substrate. In the shown example, this may harm reliability of the ADC, if supply rail 22 provides a reference for the ADC and may push the voltage range beyond reliable limits and/or influence the reference of the ADC which may degrade conversion accuracy.
And for example in the case of p-type substrate technology, an injected negative current may inject minority carriers into the substrate and may cause a current flow, indicated by dashed arrow 32, in external circuits connected to the terminal. And the current injection may for example cause other nodes located on the same substrate to collect the minority carriers causing unintended current flow out of those nodes. The current injection may even result in latchup effects, i.e. creation of a low-impedance path between the power supply rails of a the circuit, triggering a parasitic structure which disrupts proper functioning of the part and possibly even leading to its destruction due to overcurrent.
The present invention provides an electronic device with an application circuit and a protection circuit for protecting the application circuit from an injected current as described in the accompanying claims.
Specific embodiments of the invention are set forth in the dependent claims.
These and other aspects of the invention will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter. Identical reference numerals in different figures refer to identical or similar components.
Further details, aspects and embodiments of the invention will be described, by way of example only, with reference to the drawings. Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale.
Because the apparatus implementing the present invention is, for the most part, composed of electronic components and circuits known to those skilled in the art, circuit details will not be explained in any greater extent than that considered necessary as illustrated above, for the understanding and appreciation of the underlying concepts of the present invention and in order not to obfuscate or distract from the teachings of the present invention.
Referring to
Any two connected components may be considered electrically coupled. The electronic device 40 may be a semiconductor integrated circuit device. It may for example comprise the shown application circuit 42. However, it should be noted that the application circuit 42 may comprise different components. The electronic device provides the first 44 and second 46 supply rails with different electric potentials or voltage levels. The first may be lower than the second or vice versa. For example, the first supply rail 44 may provide ground potential and the second supply rail may provide Vcc. As an example, these may be 0V (Volts) and +5V, respectively. However, other values may be possible, for example 0V and +12V, −5V and +5V, just to name a few. The supply rails 44, 46 may supply the application circuit 42 and the protection circuit 50.
The shown terminal 48 may be a single terminal or may be a schematic representation for a plurality of terminals or pins. A terminal may be an input terminal or an output terminal or a combined input/output terminal for receiving and providing electrical signals from or to an external device coupled to the terminal 48. The term terminal may refer not only to the terminating end of the connection between the application circuit 42 and an external device but may comprise the connecting line itself. The terminal 48 may have a varying third electric potential, depending on the transmitted or received electrical signal. However, the electric potential may also be subject to change due to an unwanted positive or negative current injected into the pin 48.
The described protection circuit 50 comprises a first voltage amplifier 58, which may be an active device such as a differential operational amplifier connected to sense the difference of potentials sensed at the first input 60, which may be connected to the pin 48, and at the second input 62. The potential received at the second input 62 may be the potential of the second supply rail 46. However, as described below, it may be provided with an offset.
The output 64 of the voltage amplifier 58 may be connected to deliver its comparison signal to a switch 54 connected to enable or disable the first conductive line 52 between the terminal and the first supply rail 44, i.e. the opposite supply rail to the second supply rail 46 sensed by the first voltage amplifier circuit 58. This may allow the injected current to flow through the enabled first conductive line 52 into the opposite supply rail, as indicated by the dashed arrow 104. Hence, the shown protection circuit may be configured to actively compensate for the injected current and allow for undisturbed operation instead of just detecting the event of a current injection or switching off the device. This may also avoid pin voltage levels which could open up parasitic bipolar elements.
The first switch 58 may for example be a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET). For better implementation in an integrated circuit, this may apply to any switch used in the presented electronic device. The first switch 54 may for example be a NMOS FET. However other switches may be used, for example a bipolar transistor, a PMOS FET or a CMOS circuit. The first control input 56 may be the gate of the MOSFET 54.
Depending on the amount of injected current, the shown conductive line may for example be implemented as a single conductive line or as a plurality of conductive lines. Generally, any shown component may be implemented as a single component or a plurality of components allowing the shown component to perform its task.
The shown mechanism to protect against current injection may for example be applied to sensitive or all pins of the electronic device.
The functionality of the described protection circuit may depend on which electric potential is applied to the first 44 and to the second supply rail 46. The first control input 56 may be arranged to enable a first current flow through the first conductive line 52 either when the first electric potential is lower than the second electric potential and the first voltage amplifier 58 receives the third electric potential on its first input 60 and an electric potential lower than the third electric potential on its second input 62 or when the first electric potential is higher than the second electric potential and the first voltage amplifier 58 receives the third electric potential on the first input and an electric potential higher than the third electric potential on the second input 62. If for example the electric potential or voltage level sensed at the pin 48 is above positive supply voltage (in the case it is directly applied to the first amplifier 58) or below negative supply voltage or ground, the first amplifier 58 may generate a control signal for the control input 56 of the first switching circuit 54 for enabling the first conductive line 52 and dissipating the injected current into the first supply rail 44.
A terminal 48 subject to current injection is therefore compared to the supply rails using voltage amplifiers. If the voltage level at the terminal exceeds the rail level the amplifier turns on the switching transistor which routes the injected current into the opposite supply rail, such neither the supply voltage level can be lifted, nor there will be relevant carrier injection into the substrate of the electronic device. The amount of allowed injected current (which gets actively compensated) may therefore be chosen and designed into the device.
The first 44 or the second supply rail 46 may for example be a ground rail having ground potential. The opposite supply rail may then for example provide a positive or a negative voltage level, for example +5V or −5V, which may be a typical value for an electronic component encountering current injection in an automotive environment, since automotive circuitry is often based on multiple power supply voltages such as 12V and 5V.
In one of the embodiments of the presented electronic device 40 and as shown in
It should be noted that an offset voltage source may be any circuit capable of providing the chosen offset voltage level.
The application circuit 42 to be protected from malfunctioning due to an injected current may be any application circuit. As shown in the example, the application circuit may comprise an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) (68). Changes in the voltage supply of an ADC, for example caused by an injected current into a supply rail lifting or lowering the particular potential to a value outside of the allowed voltage range may cause malfunctioning of the ADC due to incorrect references when converting the applied analog signal. This may be at least partly be avoided the presented protection circuit arranged to direct injected current into the opposite supply rail. Therefore, the ADC may allow for higher acceptable injection current specification values without the need to decrease the precision of measurement of other channels in a sizable way. The example application circuit 42 may also comprise a resistor 98 and field effect transistors 100, 102.
As described above, a protection circuit 50 may comprise circuitry for protection against an injected current having a particular direction, i.e the injected current flow may either be a positive or a negative current flow. However, the type of expected current injection may not be known in advance or may be different for different circumstances. Therefore, the protection circuit 50 may comprise a second conductive line 70 connected between the at least one terminal 48 and the second supply rail 46, the second conductive line 70 comprising a second switch 72 having a second control input 74; and a second voltage amplifier circuit 76 having a third input 78 connected to the at least one terminal, a fourth input 80 connected to the first supply rail 44 and a second output 82 connected to the second control input 74. This may allow for protection of the application circuit 42 against positive and negative current injection.
The second control input 74 may be arranged to enable a second current flow 106 through the second conductive line 70 when the first electric potential is lower than the second electric potential and the second voltage amplifier 76 receives the third electric potential on the third input 78 and an electric potential lower than the third electric potential on the fourth input 80 or when the first electric potential is higher than the second electric potential and the second voltage amplifier 76 receives the third electric potential on the third input 78 and an electric potential higher than the third electric potential on the fourth input 80. The provided embodiment of the protection circuit may therefore allow directing injected current into the opposite supply rail, either into the first or the second supply rail 44, 46, depending on the electric potentials of the supply rails and on the direction of the injected current flow.
The protection circuit 50 may comprise a second offset voltage source 84 connected between the first supply rail 44 and the fourth input 80. This may allow to apply a voltage level having a relative offset compared to the electric potential of the first supply rail. The relative offset provided by the second offset voltage source 84 may for example be the same as the relative offset provided by the first offset voltage source 66. For example, the second electric potential of the second supply rail 46 may be +5V and the first offset voltage level may be 50 mV higher and the first electric potential of the first supply rail 44 may be 0V ground potential and the second offset voltage level may be 50 mV below 0V. However, different offset voltage levels may be applied to the first and second voltage amplifier circuits 58, 76.
The protection circuit may comprise a first diode 86 having a first anode 88 connected to the at least one terminal 48 and a first cathode 90 connected to the second supply rail 46 and/or a second diode 92 having a second cathode 94 connected to the at least one terminal 48 and a second anode 96 connected to the first supply rail 44. Although parasitic diodes may be activated when a voltage drop of at least VBE, which may for example be about 0.7V, occurs between the pin 48 and either the first 44 or the second supply rail 46, diodes implemented purposefully between the pin 48 and the supply rails 44, 46 may be used for a secondary protection mechanism, if the injected current exceeds the chosen level of protection. However, circuit designer may add a current limiting to the external circuitry connected to the pin 48 in order to avoid situations which are outside of the planned range of acceptable current injection.
Referring now also to
If current is pushed into the circuit by a connected external circuit, the potential at the pin or terminal may be changed so far that the injected current driven by the externally connected circuit flows through the pin. The described protection circuit may limit the potential Vin at the pin 48 such that no or only very few parasitic internal bipolar structures become activated. Thus there may be no or only very few minority carrier injection and no or only very few supply voltage level changes. However, if the drop voltage exceeds the upper or lower limits 114, 116 of input potentials at the first input of the first voltage amplifier 58 and at the third input of the second voltage amplifier 76, current injection into the opposite supply rails may occur. The provided circuit allows for selecting the steepness of increase in Iin by selecting the gain of the voltage amplifier circuits and the transconductance of the implemented switching transistors. Therefore, by selecting the relative offset voltages 115, 117, the amplifier gains and transistor transconductances, the protection circuit may be sized to be able to withstand any desired level of injected current.
Minimum 120 and maximum 118 Vin may denote the limits of the described mechanism, when malicious current injection or supply voltage level lifting begins. For the presented electronic circuit, an input impedance of the terminal or pin 48 shown in
The protection circuit may for example be implemented such that current injection beyond maximum 118 or minimum 120 may be controlled for example by diodes 86, 92 or by an external current limiting.
In order to allow for adjusting the protection circuit to different situations of current injection, the electronic circuit 40 may be provided such that the first voltage amplifier circuit 58 has an adjustable gain. However both amplifiers 58, 76 may have adjustable gains; and even offset voltages may be adapted.
Referring now also to
A vehicle 126 may for example be a car, a plane, a ship, a helicopter etc. A safety critical system 124 may for example comprise an ECU 122. An engine control unit (ECU), or engine control module (ECM), is an electronic control unit which controls various aspects of an internal combustion engine's operation. An ECU may for example control the quantity of fuel injected into each cylinder. An ECU may for example also control the ignition timing, variable valve timing (VVT), the level of boost maintained by the turbocharger (in turbocharged cars), and other peripherals. However, a safety critical system, wherein possible uncompensated current injection may affect device operation, may be found in a non-automotive environment. Or an automotive safety critical system may be, for example, a car safety system. A safety critical system may comprise a seat position control system, lighting, windscreen wipers, immobilizers, electronic climate control, a brake system or an electrical steering system. A brake system may comprise, for example, an anti-lock braking system (ABS), an electronic brakeforce distribution system (EBD), a cornering brake control (CBC) system etc. An electrical steering system may comprise, for example, an electronic stability control system (ESC), a traction control system (TCS) or anti-slip regulation system (ASR), an adaptive cruise control (ACC) system, a forward collision warning (FCW) system etc. However, the provided electronic device with protection from current injection may also be used for other car systems, such as the dashboard.
For example any apparatus comprising multi power supplies may be encounter current injection due to voltage levels above or below allowed supply levels.
For example, a household appliance, such as for example a washing machine using different voltages for running an electric motor or a pump and for the electronic circuitry such as the processor may comprise an electronic circuit as described above for protection against current injection.
In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described with reference to specific examples of embodiments of the invention. It will, however, be evident that while the principles of the invention have been described above in connection with specific apparatus, it is to be clearly understood that this description is made only by way of example and not as a limitation on the scope of the invention and that various modifications and changes may be made therein without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
For example, the connections may be any type of connection suitable to transfer signals from or to the respective nodes, units or devices, for example via intermediate devices. Accordingly, unless implied or stated otherwise the connections may for example be direct connections or indirect connections. Furthermore, the conductive lines may be implemented in a different manner than shown in the examples.
Also, the devices may be physically distributed over a number of apparatuses, while functionally operating as a single device. For example, the example of an electronic device shown in
The electronic device may be implemented as a semiconductor device on a substrate of any semiconductor material or combinations of materials, such as gallium arsenide, silicon germanium, silicon, monocrystalline silicon, the like, and combinations of the above, just to name a few.
Although the invention has been described with respect to specific conductivity types or polarity of potentials, skilled artisans appreciated that conductivity types and polarities of potentials may be reversed.
However, other modifications, variations and alternatives are also possible. The specifications and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than in a restrictive sense.
In the claims, any reference signs placed between parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claim. The word ‘comprising’ does not exclude the presence of other elements or steps than those listed in a claim. Furthermore, the terms “a” or “an,” as used herein, are defined as one or more than one. Also, the use of introductory phrases such as “at least one” and “one or more” in the claims should not be construed to imply that the introduction of another claim element by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim element to inventions containing only one such element, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an.” The same holds true for the use of definite articles. Unless stated otherwise, terms such as “first” and “second” are used to arbitrarily distinguish between the elements such terms describe. Thus, these terms are not necessarily intended to indicate temporal or other prioritization of such elements. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB09/53447 | 8/6/2009 | WO | 00 | 2/6/2012 |
