# US 11,442,531 B2 · Independent thermal throttling temperature control for memory sub-systems

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- Number: US 11,442,531 B2
- Document ID: US11442531B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 17/101,234
- Filed: 2020-11-23
- Published: 2022-05-26
- Granted: 2022-09-13
- Earliest claimed: 2020-11-23
- Assignees: Micron Technology, Inc.
- Applicants: Micron Technology, Inc.
- Inventors: Curtis W. Egan
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11442531B2

## CPC

- G06F 1/3296: by lowering the supply or operating voltage
- G06F 11/3058: {Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations (thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206)}
- G06F 1/206: {comprising thermal management}
- G06F 1/3225: of memory devices
- G06F 1/3228: Monitoring task completion, e.g. by use of idle timers, stop commands or wait commands
- G06F 1/3275: {Power saving in memory, e.g. RAM, cache}
- G06F 11/3062: {where the monitored property is the power consumption (power management in a computing system G06F1/3203)}
- G06F 11/3031: {where the computing system component is a motherboard or an expansion card}
- G06F 11/3037: {where the computing system component is a memory, e.g. virtual memory, cache (accessing, addressing or allocating within memory systems or architectures G06F12/00; checking stores for correct operation G11C29/00)}
- G06F 2201/81: Threshold
- Y02D 10/00: Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- Y02D: CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES [ICT], I.E. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AIMING AT THE REDUCTION OF THEIR OWN ENERGY USE

## Abstract

Device temperature values that are each indicative of a temperature at a respective device of multiple devices of a system are identified. Whether at least one device temperature value of the of device temperature values satisfies a respective thermal throttling threshold of multiple thermal throttling thresholds is determined by comparing each of the device temperature values to a respective one of the multiple thermal throttling thresholds that each correspond to one of the plurality of devices. Responsive to determining that the at least one device temperatures value satisfies the respective thermal throttling threshold, a power reduction value that is indicative of an amount of power consumption of the system that is to be reduced is determined. A power reducing operation is performed to reduce the power consumption of the system in accordance with the power reduction value.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A system comprising:
a memory device of a plurality of devices; and
a processing device of the plurality of devices, coupled with the memory device, to perform operations comprising:
identifying a plurality of device temperature values that are each indicative of a temperature at a respective device of the plurality of devices of the system;
determining whether at least one device temperature value of the plurality of device temperature values satisfies a respective thermal throttling threshold of a plurality of thermal throttling thresholds by comparing each of the plurality of device temperature values to a respective one of the plurality of thermal throttling thresholds that each correspond to one of the plurality of devices;
responsive to determining that the at least one device temperature value satisfies the respective thermal throttling threshold, determining a power reduction value that is indicative of an amount of power consumption of the system that is to be reduced; and
performing a power reducing operation to reduce the power consumption of the system in accordance with the power reduction value.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the power reduction value is proportional to a number of degrees that the at least one of the plurality of device temperature values exceeds the respective thermal throttling threshold, and wherein the power reducing operation reduces the power consumption of the system proportional to the number of degrees that the at least one of the plurality of device temperature values exceeds the respective thermal throttling threshold.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein determining the at least one device temperature value of the plurality of device temperature values satisfies the respective thermal throttling threshold, the operations further comprising:
determining that the at least one device temperature value exceeds the respective thermal throttling threshold; and
responsive to determining that of the at least one device temperature value exceeds the respective thermal throttling threshold, determining that each of the plurality of device temperature values do not exceed a respective thermal shutdown threshold of a plurality of thermal shutdown thresholds.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:
determining whether at least one device temperature value of the plurality of device temperature values satisfies a respective thermal shutdown threshold of a plurality of thermal shutdown thresholds by comparing each of the plurality of device temperature values to a respective one of the plurality of thermal shutdown thresholds that each correspond to one of the plurality of devices; and
responsive to determining the at least one device temperature value of the plurality of device temperature values satisfies the respective thermal shutdown threshold, performing a thermal shutdown operation that discontinues input and output (I/O) operations at the memory device.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The system of claim 4, the operations further comprising:
identifying an additional plurality of device temperature values that are each indicative of the temperature at a respective device of the plurality of devices of the system;
determining whether each of the additional plurality of device temperature values is below the respective one of the plurality of thermal throttling thresholds; and
responsive to determining that each of the additional plurality of device temperature values is below the respective one of the plurality of thermal throttling thresholds, terminating the thermal shutdown operation.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein determining the power reduction value that is indicative of the amount of power consumption of the system that is to be reduced, comprises:
determining a power reduction value for each of the plurality of devices based on the plurality of device temperature values; and
selecting, from the plurality of power reduction values, a first power reduction value indicative of a greatest reduction of power consumption reduction.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of device temperature values is from a direct temperature measurement at the respective device of the plurality of devices, wherein the system comprises a memory sub-system, wherein the memory device comprises a non-volatile memory device, and wherein the processing device comprises a controller of the memory sub-system.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein performing the power reducing operation to reduce the power consumption of the system in accordance with the power reduction value, the processing device to:
reducing a number of die at which parallel input and output (I/O) operations can be performed in accordance with the power reduction value.

### Claim 9

A method comprising:
identifying a first device temperature value that is indicative of a temperature at a first device of a memory sub-system and a second device temperature value that is indicative of a temperature at a second device of the memory sub-system;
determining whether at least one of the first device temperature value satisfies a first thermal throttling threshold that corresponds with the first device or the second device temperature value satisfies a second thermal throttling threshold that corresponds with the second device; and
responsive to determining that at least one of the first device temperature value satisfies the first thermal throttling threshold or the second device temperature satisfies the second thermal throttling threshold, performing a power reducing operation that reduces a power consumption of the memory sub-system proportional to an amount that the first device temperature value exceeds the first thermal throttling threshold.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The method of claim 9, further comprising:
responsive to determining that the at least one of the first device temperature value satisfies the first thermal throttling threshold or the second device temperature value satisfies the second thermal throttling threshold:
determining a first power reduction value associated with the first device temperature value and indicative a first amount of power consumption of system that is to be reduced, wherein the first amount of power consumption that is to be reduced is proportional to the amount that the first device temperature value exceeds the first thermal throttling threshold; and
determining a second power reduction value associated with the second device temperature value and indicative a second amount of power consumption of system that is to be reduced, wherein the second amount of power consumption that is to be reduced is proportional to an amount that the second device temperature value exceeds the second thermal throttling threshold.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, further comprising:
selecting, from the first power reduction value and the second power reduction value, a power reduction value indicative of a greatest reduction of power consumption.

### Claim 12 (depends on 9)

The method of claim 9, wherein determining the at least one of the first device temperature value satisfies a first thermal throttling threshold that corresponds with the first device or the second device temperature value satisfies a second thermal throttling threshold that corresponds with the second device comprises:
determining that the at least one of the first device temperature value exceeds the first thermal throttling threshold or the second device temperature value exceeds the second thermal throttling threshold; and
responsive to that the at least one of the first device temperature value exceeds the first thermal throttling threshold or the second device temperature value exceeds the second thermal throttling threshold, determining that each of the first device temperature value and the second device temperature value does not exceed a first thermal shutdown threshold and a second thermal shutdown threshold respectively.

### Claim 13 (depends on 9)

The method of claim 9, further comprising:
determining whether at least one of the first device temperature value satisfies a first thermal shutdown threshold or the second device temperature value satisfies a second thermal shutdown threshold; and
responsive to determining the at least one of the first device temperature value satisfies the first thermal shutdown threshold or the second device temperature value satisfies the second thermal shutdown threshold, performing a thermal shutdown operation that discontinues input and output (I/O) operations at the memory sub-system.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, further comprising:
identifying a first subsequent device temperature value that is indicative of the temperature at the first device of the memory sub-system and a second subsequent device temperature value that is indicative of the temperature at the second device of the memory sub-system;
determining whether the first subsequent device temperature value is below the first thermal throttling threshold and the second subsequent device temperature values is below the second thermal throttling threshold; and
responsive to determining that the first subsequent device temperature value is below the first thermal throttling threshold and the second subsequent device temperature values is below the second thermal throttling threshold, terminating the thermal shutdown operation.

### Claim 15

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, responsive to execution by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:
identifying a plurality of device temperature values that are each indicative of a temperature at a respective device of a plurality of devices of a system;
determining whether at least one device temperature value of the plurality of device temperature values satisfies a respective thermal throttling threshold of a plurality of thermal throttling thresholds by comparing each of the plurality of device temperature values to a respective one of the plurality of thermal throttling thresholds that each correspond to one of the plurality of devices;
responsive to determining that the at least one device temperature value satisfies the respective thermal throttling threshold, determining a power reduction value that is indicative of an amount of power consumption of the system that is to be reduced; and
performing a power reducing operation to reduce the power consumption of the system in accordance with the power reduction value.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the power reduction value is proportional to a number of degrees that the at least one of the plurality of device temperature values exceeds the respective thermal throttling threshold, and wherein the power reducing operation reduces the power consumption of the system proportional to the number of degrees that the at least one of the plurality of device temperature values exceeds the respective thermal throttling threshold.

### Claim 17 (depends on 15)

The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein determining the at least one device temperature value of the plurality of device temperature values satisfies the respective thermal throttling threshold, the operations further comprising:
determining that the at least one device temperature value exceeds the respective thermal throttling threshold; and
responsive to determining that of the at least one device temperature value exceeds the respective thermal throttling threshold, determining that each of the plurality of device temperature values do not exceed a respective thermal shutdown threshold of a plurality of thermal shutdown thresholds.

### Claim 18 (depends on 15)

The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, the operations further comprising:
determining whether at least one device temperature value of the plurality of device temperature values satisfies a respective thermal shutdown threshold of a plurality of thermal shutdown thresholds by comparing each of the plurality of device temperature values to a respective one of the plurality of thermal shutdown thresholds that each correspond to one of the plurality of devices; and
responsive to determining the at least one device temperature value of the plurality of device temperature values satisfies the respective thermal shutdown threshold, performing a thermal shutdown operation that discontinues input and output (I/O) operations at a memory device.

### Claim 19 (depends on 18)

The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, the operations further comprising:
identifying an additional plurality of device temperature values that are each indicative of the temperature at a respective device of the plurality of devices of the system;
determining whether each of the additional plurality of device temperature values is below the respective one of the plurality of thermal throttling thresholds; and
responsive to determining that each of the additional plurality of device temperature values is below the respective one of the plurality of thermal throttling thresholds, terminating the thermal shutdown operation.

### Claim 20 (depends on 15)

The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein determining the power reduction value that is indicative of the amount of power consumption of the system that is to be reduced, comprises:
determining a power reduction value for each of the plurality of devices based on the plurality of device temperature values; and
selecting, from the plurality of power reduction values, a first power reduction value indicative of a greatest reduction of power consumption reduction.