Patent ID: 9483068
Filing Date: 2016-11-01
CPC Classification: G01R,G05F,H03K

Claim Text:
1. A method for compensating for aging in a circuit, the method comprising: operating an aging unit included in the circuit beginning at a first time; in response to a trigger event, operating a non-aging unit also included in the circuit beginning at a second time wherein the second time is subsequent to the first time; wherein the aging unit is a first circuit that includes transistors and the non-aging unit is a second circuit that includes transistors; detecting a frequency difference between a first frequency generated by the aging unit and a second frequency generated by the non-aging unit; generating a modified power supply voltage based on the frequency difference; applying the modified power supply voltage to the non-aging unit; and estimating a shift in a threshold voltage for a transistor in the circuit based on the modified power supply voltage applied when the frequency difference is substantially zero.