Miscellaneous active electrical nonlinear devices – circuits – and – Signal converting – shaping – or generating – Synchronizing
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-28
2003-12-09
Cunningham, Terry D. (Department: 2816)
Miscellaneous active electrical nonlinear devices, circuits, and
Signal converting, shaping, or generating
Synchronizing
C327S198000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06661264
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
This invention relates generally to integrated circuits and particularly to systems for starting up integrated circuits.
During the start-up cycle of an integrated circuit, the supply voltage ramps up. A power-on reset circuit generally asserts reset whenever the supply voltage falls below a threshold. Moreover, the reset circuit asserts a reset until the supply voltage has risen above the threshold for a suitable interval. The operation of the power-on reset circuit prevents various integrated circuits such as counters, phase-locked loops, filters, memories, flip-flops, and shift registers, as a few examples, from operating improperly during start-up operation.
In some cases, such as those involving complex logic patterns or unexpected data patterns, an integrated circuit may be determined, incorrectly, to be in a ready state. It may be desirable to only release the circuit when it is in its predetermined state. In some cases, the power-on reset circuits may release logic when the power supply has maintained its threshold level for a predetermined time even though the circuit's logic is not in its predetermined state. Conversely, the power-on reset circuit may improperly release the integrated circuit because the logic is in the predetermined state even though the power supply level is still ramping.
Thus, there is a need for a system that does not prematurely release an integrated circuit.
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Feddeler James R.
Kent Michael
Moyal Nathan Y.
Prasun Raha K.
Cunningham Terry D.
Intel Corporation
Trop Pruner & Hu P.C.
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