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US 10,852,330 B1Granted
Power sensing
AssigneeSilego Technology, Inc.
InventorsTom Truong, Albert Chen, Minghan Chuang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Improved techniques for sensing and reporting power consumption from a single or multiple power supplies are disclosed. The disclosed techniques comprise integrated circuit solutions for sensing power. In some embodiments, an integrated circuit comprises circuitry for converting source voltage into a pulse-width modulation (PWM) signal and circuitry for modulating the PWM signal with a current sense signal to determine sensed power.
Claims48
An integrated circuit, comprising:
- circuitry to convert a source voltage into a pulse-width modulation (PWM) signal, wherein the PWM signal represents the source voltage as a fraction or percentage of a maximum source voltage of a power supply of an associated system and wherein the fraction or percentage comprises an amount of time to ramp from zero to the source voltage divided by an amount of time to ramp from zero to the maximum source voltage;
- and
- a switch controlled by the PWM signal, wherein a current sense signal is applied to a resistor for an amount of time the switch is turned on based on a duty cycle of the PWM signal to determine a sensed power of the associated system, wherein the current sense signal is proportional to a load current drawn by the system by a factor set by a transistor ratio of transistors of the integrated circuit, wherein the sensed power is the same fraction or percentage of a maximum power of the power supply of the associated system, and wherein the integrated circuit does not have a voltage constraint due to silicon process technology but rather senses source voltage and current higher than a process technology of the integrated circuit.
A method, comprising:
- configuring circuitry of an integrated circuit to convert a source voltage into a pulse-width modulation (PWM) signal, wherein the PWM signal represents the source voltage as a fraction or percentage of a maximum source voltage of a power supply of an associated system and wherein the fraction or percentage comprises an amount of time to ramp from zero to the source voltage divided by an amount of time to ramp from zero to the maximum source voltage;
- and
- controlling a switch of the integrated circuit using the PWM signal, wherein a current sense signal is applied to a resistor for an amount of time the switch is turned on based on a duty cycle of the PWM signal to determine a sensed power of the associated system, wherein the current sense signal is proportional to a load current drawn by the system by a factor set by a transistor ratio of transistors of the integrated circuit, wherein the sensed power is the same fraction or percentage of a maximum power of the power supply of the associated system, and wherein the integrated circuit does not have a voltage constraint due to silicon process technology but rather senses source voltage and current higher than a process technology of the integrated circuit.
A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:
- configuring circuitry of an integrated circuit to convert a source voltage into a pulse-width modulation (PWM) signal, wherein the PWM signal represents the source voltage as a fraction or percentage of a maximum source voltage of a power supply of an associated system and wherein the fraction or percentage comprises an amount of time to ramp from zero to the source voltage divided by an amount of time to ramp from zero to the maximum source voltage;
- and
- controlling a switch of the integrated circuit using the PWM signal, wherein a current sense signal is applied to a resistor for an amount of time the switch is turned on based on a duty cycle of the PWM signal to determine a sensed power of the associated system, wherein the current sense signal is proportional to a load current drawn by the system by a factor set by a transistor ratio of transistors of the integrated circuit, wherein the sensed power is the same fraction or percentage of a maximum power of the power supply of the associated system, and wherein the integrated circuit does not have a voltage constraint due to silicon process technology but rather senses source voltage and current higher than a process technology of the integrated circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.