Semiconductor device and control system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022334632-A1
Application number	US-202017636039-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 20, 2020
Priority date	Aug 30, 2019
Publication date	Oct 20, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

Power consumption is reduced. A semiconductor device includes a sensor circuit including a sensor element, a power management unit, and an arithmetic processing circuit. The power management unit has a function of controlling power supply to the arithmetic processing circuit. The arithmetic processing circuit includes a first circuit including a first storage circuit and a second circuit including a second storage circuit. The first circuit has a function of retaining first data in the first storage circuit during a period where electric power is supplied to the arithmetic processing circuit. The second circuit has a function of reading out the first data retained in the first storage circuit and writing the first data to the second storage circuit during a period where electric power is supplied to the arithmetic processing circuit, and a function of retaining the first data in the second storage circuit during a period where power supply to the arithmetic processing circuit is stopped. The sensor circuit has a function of judging a sensed signal of the sensor element and supplying second data to the power management unit in accordance with the judgment result. The power management unit has a function of restarting or stopping power supply to the arithmetic processing circuit in accordance with the second data.

First claim

1 . A semiconductor device comprising:
a sensor circuit; a power management unit; and an arithmetic processing circuit, wherein the sensor circuit comprises a sensor element, wherein the power management unit has a function of controlling power supply to the arithmetic processing circuit, wherein the arithmetic processing circuit comprises a first circuit comprising a first storage circuit and a second circuit comprising a second storage circuit, wherein the first circuit has a function of retaining first data in the first storage circuit during a period where power is supplied to the arithmetic processing circuit, wherein the second circuit has a function of reading out the first data retained in the first storage circuit and writing the first data to the second storage circuit during the period where power is supplied to the arithmetic processing circuit, and a function of retaining the first data in the second storage circuit during a period where power supply to the arithmetic processing circuit is stopped, wherein the sensor circuit has a function of judging a sensed signal of the sensor element and supplying second data to the power management unit in accordance with a judgment result, and wherein the power management unit has at least one of a function of restarting power supply to the arithmetic processing circuit in accordance with the second data and a function of stopping power supply to the arithmetic processing circuit in accordance with the second data.

2 . The semiconductor device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the second circuit has a function of reading out the first data from the second storage circuit and supplying the first data to the first storage circuit after power supply to the arithmetic processing circuit restarts.

3 . The semiconductor device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an antenna; and a secondary battery, wherein the power management unit has a function of supplying power to the arithmetic processing circuit from the secondary battery, and wherein the arithmetic processing circuit further comprises a modulation circuit and a demodulation circuit.

4 . The semiconductor device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the sensor element has a function of measuring one or more selected from force, displacement, position, speed, acceleration, angular velocity, rotational frequency, distance, light, liquid, magnetism, temperature, chemical substance, sound, time, hardness, electric field, current, voltage, electric power, radiation, flow rate, humidity, gradient, vibration, odor, and infrared rays.

5 . A semiconductor device comprising:
a sensor circuit; a power management unit; and an arithmetic processing circuit, wherein the sensor circuit comprises an acceleration sensor, wherein the power management unit has a function of controlling power supply to the arithmetic processing circuit, wherein the arithmetic processing circuit comprises a first circuit comprising a first storage circuit and a second circuit comprising a second storage circuit, wherein the first circuit has a function of retaining first data in the first storage circuit during a period where electric power is supplied to the arithmetic processing circuit, wherein the second circuit has a function of reading out the first data retained in the first storage circuit and writing the first data to the second storage circuit during the period where electric power is supplied to the arithmetic processing circuit, and a function of retaining the first data in the second storage circuit during a period where power supply to the arithmetic processing circuit is stopped, wherein the sensor circuit has a function of judging a sensed signal of the acceleration sensor and supplying second data to the power management unit in accordance with a judgment result, and wherein the power management unit has at least one of a function of restarting power supply to the arithmetic processing circuit in accordance with the second data and a function of stopping power supply to the arithmetic processing circuit in accordance with the second data.

6 . A control system comprising:
the semiconductor device according to claim 5 ; and a control device, wherein the acceleration sensor has a function of sensing vibration of an object, wherein the control device has a function of controlling the object, wherein the sensor circuit has a function of judging the sensed signal of the acceleration sensor and restarting power supply to the arithmetic processing circuit in the case where the sensor circuit determines that the acceleration sensor senses abnormal vibration of the object, wherein the arithmetic processing circuit has a function of analyzing the sensed signal of the acceleration sensor as power supply is restarted and supplying third data to the control device in accordance with an analysis result, and wherein the control device has a function of controlling the object in accordance with the third data.

7 . The control system according to claim 6 ,
wherein the semiconductor device further comprises an antenna, wherein the arithmetic processing circuit further comprises a modulation circuit and a demodulation circuit, and wherein the third data is supplied from the semiconductor device to the control device via wireless communication.

8 . The control system according to claim 7 ,
wherein the semiconductor device further comprises a secondary battery, and wherein the power management unit has a function of supplying power from the secondary battery to the arithmetic processing circuit.

Assignees

• Semiconductor Energy Lab

Inventors

• Katagiri Haruki
• Tsukamoto Yosuke
• Furumatsu Daisuke
• Mukao Kyoichi
• Endo Motohiro

Classifications

• G06F1/3215 Primary

  Monitoring of peripheral devices · CPC title

• G06F1/324

  by lowering clock frequency · CPC title

• G06F1/3275

  Power saving in memory, e.g. RAM, cache · CPC title

• G06F1/3296

  by lowering the supply or operating voltage · CPC title

• G06F1/3287 Primary

  by switching off individual functional units in the computer system · CPC title