Adaptive body bias for clock skew compensation
First Claim
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1. An apparatus comprising:
- a bias voltage distribution network comprising a central bias generator to produce at least one reference voltage, and a plurality of local bias generators to receive the at least one reference voltage and produce a plurality of bias voltages;
a plurality of clock buffers having transistor bodies coupled to receive the plurality of bias voltages from the bias voltage distribution network; and
at least one comparison circuit coupled between the plurality of clock buffers and the bias voltage distribution network, wherein the at least one comparison circuit comprises a phase detector to measure a phase difference between signals driven by at least two of the plurality of clock buffers, and to provide an error signal to the bias voltage distribution network;
wherein both the central bias generator and the at least one local bias generator are coupled to receive the error signal.
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Abstract
Transistor bodies are biased to modify delay in clock buffers.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. An apparatus comprising:
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a bias voltage distribution network comprising a central bias generator to produce at least one reference voltage, and a plurality of local bias generators to receive the at least one reference voltage and produce a plurality of bias voltages; a plurality of clock buffers having transistor bodies coupled to receive the plurality of bias voltages from the bias voltage distribution network; and at least one comparison circuit coupled between the plurality of clock buffers and the bias voltage distribution network, wherein the at least one comparison circuit comprises a phase detector to measure a phase difference between signals driven by at least two of the plurality of clock buffers, and to provide an error signal to the bias voltage distribution network; wherein both the central bias generator and the at least one local bias generator are coupled to receive the error signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. An electronic system comprising:
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an antenna; a radio frequency circuit coupled to the antenna; and a digital circuit coupled to the radio frequency circuit, the digital circuit including variable delay clock buffers, a central bias generator to produce at least one reference voltage, and a local bias generator to receive the at least one reference voltage and produce a bias voltage, the local bias generator being coupled to the variable delay clock buffers, and a comparison circuit to produce an error signal from a comparison of two signals from the variable delay clock buffers, wherein the central bias generator and local bias generator are both coupled to receive the error signal. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method comprising:
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generating a plurality of bias voltages at a central bias generator; selecting one of the plurality of bias voltages at a local bias generator to produce a selected bias voltage; applying the selected bias voltage to a body of a transistor in a clock buffer; measuring a delay of the clock buffer to produce an error signal; modifying the plurality of bias voltages in response to the error signal; and selecting a different one of the plurality of bias voltages in response to the error signal. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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17. An apparatus comprising:
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clock buffers with variable delay influenced by body bias; a bias voltage generation network including a central bias generator to produce at least one reference voltage, and a local bias generator to receive the at least one reference voltage and to influence the delay of the clock buffers; and an error signal generation circuit to produce an error signal in response to the variable delay in the clock buffers, wherein the central bias generator and local bias generator are coupled to be responsive to an error signal from the error signal generation circuit. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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21. An apparatus comprising:
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clock buffers with variable delay influenced by body bias; a bias voltage generation network including a central bias generator and a local bias generator; and an error signal generation circuit to produce an error signal in response to the variable delay in the clock buffers, wherein the central bias generator and local bias generator are coupled to be responsive to an error signal from the error signal generation circuit; wherein the central bias generator is coupled to produce a plurality of reference voltages in response to the error signal and wherein the local bias generator is coupled to select one of the plurality of bias voltages in response to the error signal. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
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Specification