Real-time clock device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11811389-B2
Application number	US-202117201029-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 15, 2021
Priority date	Mar 16, 2020
Publication date	Nov 7, 2023
Grant date	Nov 7, 2023

Abstract

A real-time clock device includes a package that houses a resonator, an oscillation circuit, a clocking circuit, and a functional circuit, and on which external terminals are formed. The external terminals include a high-potential power supply terminal coupled to a high-potential power supply, a low-potential power supply terminal coupled to a low-potential power supply, a clocking signal terminal used at least for controlling the clocking circuit, and a functional signal terminal used for controlling the functional circuit, the functional signal terminal is arranged outside the high-potential power supply terminal, the low-potential power supply terminal, and the clocking signal terminal in a direction in which the external terminals are arranged, and the real-time clock device further includes a switching circuit that switches between a state in which the functional signal terminal and the functional circuit are coupled and a state in which the functional signal terminal and the functional circuit are not coupled.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A real-time clock device comprising:
a resonator;
an oscillation circuit that oscillates the resonator;
a clocking circuit that performs clocking based on a signal from the oscillation circuit and generates clocking information;
a functional circuit that performs information processing based on the clocking information;
a package that houses the resonator, the oscillation circuit, the clocking circuit, and the functional circuit, the package being substantially quadrangular-prism-shaped, the package having a bottom outer surface having a first side, a second side, a third side, and a fourth side, the first and second sides extending in a first direction, the third and fourth sides extending in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction;
external terminals arranged on the bottom outer surface of the package along at least one of the first, second, third, and fourth sides; and
a switching circuit selectively electrically coupling one of the external terminals to the functional circuit,
wherein the external terminals include:
a high-potential power supply terminal coupled to a high-potential power supply;
a low-potential power supply terminal coupled to a low-potential power supply, a voltage supplied to the high-potential power supply terminal is higher than a voltage supplied to the low-potential power supply terminal;
a clocking signal terminal through which a clocking signal is transferred, and the clocking signal is used at least for controlling the clocking circuit; and
a functional signal terminal through which a functional signal is transferred via the switching circuit, and the functional signal is used for controlling the functional circuit,

the functional signal terminal is located at one of end areas of the first, second, third, and fourth sides on the bottom outer surface or one of four corners of the bottom outer surface of the package,
the high-potential power supply terminal, the low-potential power supply terminal, and the clocking signal terminal are located at an intermediate area between the end areas of at least one of the first, second, third, and fourth sides on the bottom outer surface of the package, and
the functional circuit is configured to output an interrupt signal to the functional signal terminal at a timing based on the clocking information.

2. The real-time clock device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the external terminals are arranged side by side at least on two opposite sides of the first and second sides or the third and fourth sides of the bottom outer surface of the package in a plan view, and
the functional signal terminal is located at one of the four corners of the bottom outer surface of the package in the plan view.

3. The real-time clock device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the functional circuit is configured to store the clocking information in a memory when a voltage level of the functional signal input to the functional signal terminal changes.

4. The real-time clock device according to claim 1 , further comprising a non-volatile memory,
wherein the switching circuit is configured to switch between a state in which the functional signal terminal and the functional circuit are coupled and a state in which the functional signal terminal and the functional circuit are not coupled, based on switching information stored in the non-volatile memory.

5. The real-time clock device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the switching circuit is configured to:
switch to a state in which the functional signal terminal and the functional circuit are not coupled during a predetermined period of time starting from a start of power supply to the high-potential power supply terminal; and
switch to a state in which the functional signal terminal and the functional circuit are coupled after the predetermined period of time elapses.

6. The real-time clock device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the switching circuit is configured to:
switch to a state in which the functional signal terminal and the functional circuit are not coupled during a period from a start of power supply to the high-potential power supply terminal to an input of a predetermined command signal to the clocking signal terminal; and
switch to a state in which the functional signal terminal and the functional circuit are coupled after the predetermined command signal is input.

Assignees

• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Usuda Toshiya

Classifications

• H03H9/13 Primary

  for networks consisting of piezoelectric or electrostrictive materials (for networks using surface acoustic waves H03H9/145) · CPC title

• G06F1/08

  Clock generators with changeable or programmable clock frequency · CPC title

• G06F1/14 Primary

  Time supervision arrangements, e.g. real time clock · CPC title

• H03B5/32 Primary

  being a piezoelectric resonator (selection of piezoelectric material H10N30/00) · CPC title

• H03H9/17

  having a single resonator (crystal tuning forks H03H9/21) · CPC title