Supervisory Circuits for Low-Frequency Monitoring of a Communication SoC

Towards the goal of enhanced hardware security, this work proposes compact supervisory circuits to perform low-frequency monitoring of a communication SoC. The communication RF output is monitored through an integrated RF envelope detector. The input supply to the transceiver block of the SoC is delivered by an integrated linear voltage regulator with output current monitoring. These two supervisory circuits are inexpensively fabricated in 0.6-μm technology. The useful bandwidth of the envelope detector is measured as 1-6 GHz at a supply of 3.3 VDC and quiescent current of 2.65 mA. The linear regulator generates 3.3 VDC using an input of 5 VDC, quiescent current of 1.83 mA, and load current from 1-120 mA. Static and transient load current tests demonstrate linear output current monitoring.