Patent ID: 8378754

Claim:
A ring oscillator, comprising: at least one multi-stage delay circuit, each multi-stage delay circuit including at least one output terminal and being configured to apply delay times to a respective input signal and to output at least one delayed signal to which different delay times have been applied via the at least one output terminal; and at least one inverter, wherein the at least one multi-stage delay circuit and the at least one inverter are connected in the form of a ring; and wherein the at least one multi-stage delay circuit comprises: a MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor); a voltage source configured to apply a voltage difference between a drain and a source of the MOSFET; and a plurality of taps drawn from a gate electrode of the MOSFET, wherein a signal to be delayed is propagated through the gate of the MOSFET in the gate width direction, and wherein a plurality of delayed signals, which have been obtained by applying different delay times to the signal to be delayed, are output via the plurality of taps.