Electronic device system including semiconductor integrated...

Details Electronic device system including semiconductor integrated... Electronic device system including semiconductor integrated...

2000-03-16

2002-09-10

Sherry, Michael (Department: 2829)

Electricity: measuring and testing

Fault detecting in electric circuits and of electric components

Of individual circuit component or element

C324S1540PB

Reexamination Certificate

active

06448798

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an electronic device system which includes semiconductor integrated circuits, and which can detect a current consumption of the integrated circuits.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In an electronic device system which includes semiconductor integrated circuits, it is necessary to measure an electric current that passes through each integrated circuit. Therefore, the electronic device system includes current detecting circuits.
A conventional electronic device system which includes current detecting circuits is shown in FIG.
8
. The electronic device system
800
comprises a plurality of integrated circuits
1
and a plurality of current detecting circuits. In
FIG. 8
, the current detecting circuits are ammeters
3
. One integrated circuit
1
includes an internal circuit
5
. This internal circuit
5
comprises any one of various circuits, such as a CPU, a microcontroller, a memory circuit, a logic circuit and so on.
A first terminal
5
a
of the internal circuit
5
is connected to a power voltage pad
1
a
which is provided with a power supply voltage VDD from a power supply. A second terminal
5
b
is connected to a GND pad
1
b
which is provided with a ground voltage GND.
The ammeter
3
is connected in series between the power voltage pad
1
a
and the power supply and measures an electric current passing through the internal circuit
5
.
In the conventional electronic device system, for each internal circuit, a plurality of ammeters are located in order to measure an electric current passing through each internal circuit. Therefore, it is difficult to reduce the size of the electronic device system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to provide an electronic device system which allows for the size thereof to be reduced.
To achieve the object, according to one aspect of the invention, an amount of current which passes through a resistive element located between a power supply voltage and an internal integrated circuit is calculated on the basis of the power supply voltage and an voltage which occurs on an node between the resistive element and the internal circuit.
According to the present invention, in the electronic device system which includes a plurality of internal integrated circuits, a detecting circuit can be shared to measure an electric current passing through each internal integrated circuit. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the size of the electronic device system.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4823803 (1989-04-01), Nakamura
patent: 4979066 (1990-12-01), Kawata
patent: 5266894 (1993-11-01), Takagi
patent: 5394008 (1995-02-01), Ito
patent: 5453991 (1995-09-01), Suzuki
patent: 5929715 (1999-07-01), Nakamiya
patent: 5962868 (1999-10-01), Tanida
patent: 6125075 (2000-09-01), Watanabe

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