Combined process and temperature adjustable voltage regulation
AssigneeHuawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
InventorsKent Jaeger, Lawrence E. Connell, Neal Hollenbeck
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A device includes a temperature-variable voltage controller, in which the temperature-variable voltage controller comprises: a voltage regulator; a process monitor circuit coupled to the voltage regulator, in which the process monitor circuit includes a ring oscillator, and a frequency counter coupled to an output of the ring oscillator; and a temperature-variable current source coupled to the voltage regulator so that, during operation, the output voltage of the voltage regulator is compensated based on a change in temperature of the temperature-variable current source.
Claims18
A device comprising a temperature-variable voltage controller, wherein the temperature-variable voltage controller comprises:
- a voltage regulator;
- a process monitor circuit coupled to the voltage regulator, wherein the process monitor circuit comprises
- a ring oscillator, and
- a frequency counter coupled to an output of the ring oscillator;
- a temperature-variable current source outputting a current which varies with temperature which is coupled to an input of the voltage regulator to produce an output voltage of the voltage regulator that is compensated based on a change in temperature of the temperature-variable current source;
- and
- a process feedback circuit comprising a microprocessor and memory configured to adjust the output voltage of the voltage regulator to set a resistance value of a first variable load element and to set a resistance value of a second variable load element based on an output value of the frequency counter, and wherein the microprocessor is operable to apply the output value of the frequency counter to a curve fitting function to derive the resistance value of the first variable load element and the resistance value of the second variable load element.
A method comprising:
- running a process monitor circuit coupled to a voltage regulator on a same chip as the process monitor circuit, wherein running the process monitor circuit comprises:
- operating a ring oscillator,
- counting a frequency of an output of the ring oscillator, and
- configuring the voltage regulator based on the frequency of the output of the ring oscillator by obtaining a resistance value of a first variable load element and a resistance value of a second variable load element from a curve fitting function based on the frequency of the output of the ring oscillator;
- and
- providing an output current which varies with temperature from a temperature-variable current source to an input of the voltage regulator so that the output voltage of the voltage regulator is compensated based on a change in temperature of the temperature-variable current source, and adjusting, by a process feedback circuit including a microprocessor, the output voltage of the voltage regulator by setting the resistance value of the first variable load element and setting the resistance value of the second variable load element.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.