A power transmitting apparatus measures a Q factor of a power transmitting unit that performs wireless power transfer to a power receiving apparatus, and determines presence/absence of an object different from the power receiving apparatus based on the Q factor. The power transmitting apparatus obtains a first index value regarding a predetermined physical amount different from the Q factor after measurement of the Q factor, obtains a second index value regarding the predetermined physical amount before wireless power transfer to the power receiving apparatus starts after the it is determined in the above determination that an object different from the power receiving apparatus does not exist; and determines presence/absence of an object different from the power receiving apparatus based on the first index value and the second index value.

A power detection circuit is provided for detecting current total input power of a resonant circuit. The power detection circuit includes a detection circuit and an estimation circuit. The detection circuit receives a current signal and obtains resonant-slot baseband power according to the current signal to generate the baseband power value. The current signal represents a resonant-slot current generated by the resonant circuit. The estimation circuit receives the baseband power value and estimates the current total input power according to the baseband power value to generate an estimated power value.

Circuits and methods involve an integrated circuit (IC) device, a plurality of application-specific sub-circuits, and a plurality of instances of a measuring circuit. The application-specific sub-circuits are disposed within respective areas of the IC device. Each instance of the measuring circuit is associated with one of the application-specific sub-circuits and is disposed within a respective one of the areas of the device. Each instance of the measuring circuit further includes a ring oscillator and a register for storage of a value indicative of an interval of time. Each instance of the measuring circuit is configured to measure passage of the interval of time based on a first clock signal, count oscillations of an output signal of the ring oscillator during the interval of time, and output a value indicating a number of oscillations counted during the interval of time.

Embodiments of the invention provide for integrated circuits for testing one or more transistors for process variation effects. According to an embodiment, the integrated circuit can include: a plurality of ring oscillator macro circuits, wherein each ring oscillator macro circuit includes two ring oscillators, a first multiplexer, and a first divide-by-two circuit; a multiplexer stage; a divide-by-two circuit stage; a second multiplexer; a second divide-by-two circuit; and frequency measurement circuit. According to another embodiment, the integrated circuit can include: a first shift register including a plurality of devices-under-test; a second shift register including a plurality of static latches; a first multiplexer configured to receive outputs from each of the plurality of DUTs; a second multiplexer configured to receive outputs from each of the plurality of static latches; and a comparator configured to compare an output from the first multiplexer with an output from the second multiplexer.

A semiconductor device may include: first to n-th through-electrodes; first to n-th through-electrode driving circuits suitable for charging the first to n-th through-electrodes to a first voltage level, or discharging the first to n-th through-electrodes to a second voltage level; and first to n-th error detection circuits, each suitable for storing the first voltage level or the second voltage level of a corresponding through-electrode of the first to n-th through-electrodes as a down-detection signal and an up-detection signal, and outputting a corresponding error detection signal of first to n-th error detection signals by sequentially masking the down-detection signal and the up-detection signal.

A monitoring circuit for a high frequency signal includes: a phase locked loop configured to generate a divided output signal with respect to an input signal based on a plurality of dividers; a plurality of dividing monitoring circuits configured to receive dividing input signals and dividing output signals respectively corresponding to the plurality of dividers, and output dividing error signals; and a jitter monitoring circuit configured to output a jitter error signal.

Silicon test structures are described that enable separate measurement of n-channel metal-oxide semiconductor (NMOS) and p-channel metal-oxide semiconductor (PMOS) transistor delays. NMOS and PMOS specific non-inverting stages may be used to construct a multi-stage ring oscillator. Each of the non-inverting stages generates either a rising or falling primary transition that is determined by either NMOS or PMOS transistors, respectively. The opposing transition for a particular non-inverting stage is triggered by propagation of the primary transition to a subsequent non-inverting stage (producing a “reset” pulse). A frequency of the ring oscillator is determined by the primary transition and one transistor type (NMOS or PMOS). Specifically, the frequency is determined by the propagation delay of the primary transition through the entire ring oscillator.

A power transmission apparatus that can wirelessly transmit power to a power reception apparatus via a power transmission coil and communicate with the power reception apparatus determines presence/absence of an object different from the power reception apparatus based on a Q factor of the power transmission coil measured in a phase for performing power transmission. The power transmission apparatus controls whether to execute the determination of presence/absence of the object different from the power reception apparatus based on measurement of the Q factor of the power transmission coil, based on information received from the power reception apparatus through communication that represents whether the power reception apparatus can execute predetermined processing associated with the determination of presence/absence of the object different from the power reception apparatus based on the measurement of the Q factor of the power transmission coil.

A method and system are disclosed for measuring a specified parameter in a phase-locked loop frequency synthesizer (PLL). In one embodiment, the method comprises introducing multiple phase errors in the PLL, measuring a specified aspect of the introduced phase errors, and determining a value for the specified parameter using the measured aspects of the introduced phase errors. In one embodiment, the phase errors are introduced repetitively in the PLL, and these phase errors produce a modified phase difference between the reference signal and the feedback signal in the PPL. In one embodiment, crossover times, when this modified phase difference crosses over a preset value, are determined, and these crossover times are used to determine the value for the specified parameter. In an embodiment, the parameter is calculated as a mathematical function of the crossover times. The parameter may be, for example, the bandwidth of the PLL.

A ring oscillator circuit design includes three or more inverter stages connected in series. Each inverter stage includes one or more inverter devices including a PMOS device and a coupled NMOS device. The PMOS device in each of odd alternating inverter devices of the three or more inverter stages having a source terminal receiving power from a power rail conductor, and a source terminal of the coupled NMOS device in each of first alternating inverter devices is grounded. An output of a last inverter device of a last stage of the three or more inverter stages is connected to an input of a first inverter stage. The method measures a first frequency of a first ring oscillator circuit and measures a second frequency of a second ring oscillator circuit design to determine either a BTI or HCI failure mechanism of the first ring oscillator circuit based on the measurements.