1. A microelectronic device comprising:
a first circuit; and
a second circuit, coupled to the first circuit for selectively preventing operation of the first circuit in response to a device temperature rising above a shutdown threshold, wherein the second circuit includes a temperature responsive element, thermally coupled to the first circuit for providing a shutdown signal correlated to the device temperature;
wherein the temperature responsive element comprises a reverse-biased junction element and the shutdown signal is correlated to a reverse leakage current of the reverse-biased junction element, further comprising a hysteresis circuit configured such that, when the first circuit is prevented from operating, the hysteresis circuit causes restoring operation of the first circuit being permitted conditional to the device temperature decreasing below a restore threshold, lower than the shutdown threshold, wherein the hysteresis circuit comprises an auxiliary current source feeding in parallel to the reverse-biased junction element and selectively activatable when the first circuit is prevented from operating.
2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the reverse leakage current of the reverse-biased junction element exponentially depends on the temperature device.
3. The device according to claim 1, comprising amplifying means, coupled to the reverse-biased junction element for linearly amplifying the reverse leakage current.
4. The device according to claim 1, wherein the reverse-biased junction element comprises a PN junction element.
5. The device according to claim 4, wherein the reverse-biased junction element comprises a diffused resistor having conduction terminals connected together and a bulk terminal.
6. The device according to claim 1, wherein the reverse-biased junction element comprises a metal-semiconductor junction element.
7. The device according to claim 1, wherein the shutdown signal includes a shutdown current.
8. The device according to claim 7, wherein the first circuit comprises a driving circuit, having a bias terminal, and a bias current source, coupled to the bias terminal for supplying a bias current, and wherein the reverse-biased junction element is coupled to the bias terminal for supplying the shutdown current, such that a fraction of the bias current is prevented from flowing through the driving circuit.
9. The device according to claim 7, wherein the first circuit comprises a power component and the second circuit comprises a clamp circuit, coupled to the power component for limiting a control voltage on a control terminal of the power component, in a first operating condition, and for providing a cutoff leakage current in a second operating condition, so that the power transistor is set in an off-state.
10. The device according to claim 1, wherein the shutdown signal includes a shutdown voltage.
11. The device according to claim 10, wherein the first circuit comprises a power component and wherein the second circuit is coupled to a control terminal of the power component for selectively turning the power component off, in response to a shutdown value of the shutdown voltage.
12. The device according to claim 1, wherein the auxiliary current source comprises an additional reverse-biased junction element and a coupling element controlled for coupling the additional reverse-biased junction element in parallel to the reverse-biased junction element when the first circuit is prevented from operating.
13. A thermal protection method for a microelectronic device comprising the steps of:
sensing a temperature of a circuit;
providing a shutdown signal correlated to the temperature, for selectively preventing operation of the circuit in response to the temperature rising above a shutdown threshold;
wherein the step of sensing comprises
reverse biasing a junction element and the step of providing comprises generating the shutdown signal based on a reverse leakage current of the junction element;
restoring operation of the circuit, using a hysteresis circuit, in response to the temperature of the circuit decreasing below a restore threshold that is lower than the shutdown threshold; and
at least partially turning the hysteresis circuit off when the circuit is in normal operation.
14. A microelectronic device comprising:
a first circuit; and
a second circuit, including a temperature responsive element thermally coupled to the first circuit, for providing a shutdown signal to prevent operation of the first circuit in response to the temperature of the first circuit rising above a shutdown threshold, the temperature responsive element comprising a reverse-biased junction element and the shutdown signal being based on a reverse leakage current of the reverse-biased junction element, the second circuit further including a hysteresis circuit configured to restore operation of the first circuit in response to the temperature of the first circuit decreasing below a restore threshold that is lower than the shutdown threshold, the hysteresis circuit being at least partially turned off when the first circuit is in normal operation.
15. A microelectronic device as defined in claim 14, wherein the second circuit further comprises an amplifier, coupled to the reverse-biased junction element, for amplifyring the reverse leakage current.
16. A microelectronic circuit as defined in claim 14, wherein the first circuit comprises a driver circuit and a bias current source to supply bias current through the driver circuit and wherein the second circuit provides the shutdown signal as a shutdown current through the bias current source of the first circuit, the shutdown current through the bias current source being sufficient to prevent operation of the driver circuit.
17. A microelectronic device comprising;
a first circuit; and
a second circuit, including a temperature responsive element thermally coupled to the first circuit, for providing a shutdown signal to prevent operation of the first circuit in response to the temperature of the first circuit rising above a shutdown threshold, the temperature responsive element comprising a reverse-biased junction element and the shutdown signal being based on a reverse leakage current of the reverse-biased junction, wherein the first circuit comprises a driver circuit and a bias current source to supply bias current through the driver circuit and wherein the second circuit provides the shutdown signal as a shutdown current through the bias current source of the first circuit, the shutdown current through the bias current source being sufficient to prevent operation of the driver circuit.
18. A microelectronic device as defined in claim 17, wherein the second circuit further comprises an amplifier, coupled to the reverse-biased junction element, for amplifying the reverse leakage current.
19. A microelectronic device comprising:
a first circuit; and
a second circuit, including a temperature responsive element thermally coupled to the first circuit, for providing a shutdown signal to prevent operation of the first circuit in response to the temperature of the first circuit rising above a shutdown threshold, the second circuit further including a hysteresis circuit configured to restore operation of the first circuit in response to the temperature of the first circuit decreasing below a restore threshold that is lower than the shutdown threshold, the hysteresis circuit being at least partially turned off when the first circuit is in normal operation.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. An electronic device comprising:
at least one interposer structure having one or more vias and a plurality of decoupling capacitors integrated therein, the at least one interposer structure having a configuration which enables one or more of the plurality of decoupling capacitors to be selectively deactivated, wherein the at least one interposer structure further comprises one or more active circuits integrated therein, wherein the at least one interposer structure comprises a passivation layer over at least a portion of one or more of the plurality of decoupling capacitors, and wherein the passivation layer comprises an organic polymer.
2. The device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of decoupling capacitors comprise one or more of parallel plate decoupling capacitors and trench decoupling capacitors.
3. The device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of decoupling capacitors comprise at least one parallel plate decoupling capacitor and at least one trench decoupling capacitor.
4. The device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of decoupling capacitors are grouped into one or more blocks within the at least one interposer structure.
5. An The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising
a plurality of additional interposer structures in a stacked configuration.
6. The device of claim 1, further comprising an integrated circuit chip in electrical contact with a side of the at least one interposer structure.
7. The device of claim 6, further comprising one or more of a ceramic substrate, organic substrate or Si substrate and a printed circuit board in electrical contact with a side of the at least one interposer structure opposite the integrated circuit chip.
8. The device of claim 1, wherein one or more of the plurality of decoupling capacitors comprise a high k dielectric material.
9. The device of claim 8, wherein the high k dielectric material is selected from the group consisting of silicon nitride, silicon oxinitride, tantalum oxide, titanium oxide, aluminum oxide, zirconium oxide, hafnium oxide, hafnium silicon oxide, barium strontium titanate, barium zirconium titanate, barium titanium oxide, barium-strontium and combinations comprising at least one of the foregoing materials.
10. An electronic device comprising:
at least one interposer structure having one or more vias and a plurality of decoupling capacitors integrated therein, the at least one interposer structure having a configuration which enables one or more of the plurality of decoupling capacitors to be selectively deactivated; and
one or more removable connections electrically connecting one or more of the plurality of decoupling capacitors to one or more other of the plurality of decoupling capacitors.
11. The device of claim 10, wherein at least one of the removable connections comprises a fuse.
12. The device of claim 10, wherein at least one of the removable connections comprises a removable bump.
13. The device of claim 10, wherein at least one of the removable connections comprises a conductive strap.
14. The device of claim 13, wherein at least a portion of the conductive strap can be removed using laser deletion techniques.
15. An integrated circuit, comprising:
an electronic device having at least one interposer structure having one or more vias and a plurality of decoupling capacitors integrated therein, the at least one interposer structure having a configuration which enables one or more of the plurality of decoupling capacitors to be selectively deactivated, wherein the at least one interposer structure further comprises one or more active circuits integrated therein, wherein the at least one interposer structure comprises a passivation layer over at least a portion of one or more of the plurality of decoupling capacitors, and wherein the passivation layer comprises an organic polymer.