On-chip supply current monitoring units using magnetic force sensing

Abstract

A built-in on-chip current sensors design based on magnetic force of is presented. The proposed sensors are aimed to be used for on-chip current testing in deep-submicron circuits with ultra low-voltage power supply. The advantage of the proposed monitors is mainly elimination of the undesired supply voltage reduction, commonly created by standard current test methods. Description of different sensor architectures, their designs and physical implementations on chip are presented. All the sensor versions were designed in 1.0 mum BiCMOS technology.