Analog Bits Unveils Integrated Sensor Macro Family

Monitors performance, product life-critical temperature and voltage

Mountain View, CA, May 31, 2012 – Analog Bits, the Integrated Clocking and Interface IP leader, today announced the immediate availability of a fully integrated Sensor macro product line to monitor both on-chip temperature variation and voltage supply.

Temperature variation is a particularly acute problem below 65nm process lithography as increased power density and ever-thinning wires induce electro-migration, product life, and reliability issues to the point of potentially causing system-on-chip (SoC) field failures.

Large die are especially susceptible to temperature and voltage variation, often requiring close, careful monitoring. Sensor IP enables SoCs to not only monitor, but also scale the workload and operating voltage to maintain chip temperature within a narrowly pre-defined range.

Analog Bits' Sensor IP is a highly integrated macro providing excellent precision in a fully-integrated and easy to instantiate form factor for any SoC. It consumes very little operational power and shows leakage power only when it completes temperature and voltage measurement.

The block includes all analog functions internally, leaving only a simple-to-use digital interface that works with standard power supplies. It uses regular transistors and requires no extra mask steps. The Sensor IP block is very compact, so it can be scattered or arrayed across the die with little area cost and can monitor die temperature variation on speed and power critical blocks such as integrated microprocessors.

"Temperature and voltage variations are serious new advanced technology conundrums facing both chip and systems designers," explains Mahesh Tirupattur, Executive Vice President, Analog Bits. "They are too often deal killers. Because the Analog Bits' Sensor macro is highly integrated, it meets today's advanced technology design challenges on a number of levels. It overcomes some of the latest barriers to innovation by increasing product life, while reducing packaging-related system costs."

About Analog Bits:

Founded in 1995, Analog Bits, Inc. is the leading supplier of lowpower, customizable analog IP for easy and reliable integration into modern CMOS digital chips. Our products include precision clocking macros such as PLL’s & DLL’s, programmable interconnect solutions such as multi-protocol SERDES/PMA and programmable I/O’s as well as specialized memories such as high-speed SRAMs and TCAMs. With billions of uses of IP fabricated in customer silicon from 0.35-micron to 28-nm processes, Analog Bits is the premier analog IP supplier with an outstanding heritage of "first time working silicon" at merchant foundries and IDMs.