Calibration-free 1052 µm2 power supply monitor

The presence of noise in the power supply line in the form of ripples or spikes jeopardizes the behavior of electronic circuits. One solution to this problem is the use of power supply monitors that flag a signal whenever a hazardous situation is detected. In this paper we present a low area power supply monitor that detects under- and overshoots and does not require neither external reference nor calibration. It is based on the use of a bandgap core as voltage detector which proved to be especially robust against temperature and process variations. The monitor has been designed with a 40nm commercial technology, and is characterized by a 1052 μm
²
area, 6.4 pJ of energy consumption per measurement. It is able to sense ±40 mV for over- and undershoots without the need of calibration and with a maximum response latency of 1.7 ns for the worst technology corner.