Watch-Dog Circuit for Quality Guarantee with Subthreshold MOSFET Current

Tetsuya HIROSE  Ryuji YOSHIMURA  Toru IDO  Toshimasa MATSUOKA  Kenji TANIGUCHI  

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics   Vol.E87-C   No.11   pp.1910-1914
Publication Date: 2004/11/01
Online ISSN: 
DOI: 
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on New System Paradigms for Integrated Electronics)
Category: 
Keyword: 
CMOS,  subthreshold current,  ultra-low-power,  temperature dependence,  

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Summary: 
We propose an ultra low power watch-dog circuit with the use of MOSFETs operation under subthreshold characteristics. The circuit monitors the amount of the product degradation because the subthreshold current of MOSFET emulates the rate of the general chemical reaction. Its operation was verified with both SPICE simulation and the measurement of the prototype chip. The new circuit embedded in a tag attached to any product could dynamically monitor the degradation regardless of storage conditions.