Tunable integrated voltage regulator
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsMeghna Maheshkumar Patel, Mudit Sunilkumar Khasgiwala
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Abstract
An integrated voltage regulator (IVR) for on-chip integrated circuit applications may include a tunable inductor that may be adjusted to generate a target output for the IVR. The tunable inductor may include a piezoelectric material that may cause the relative permeability of the inductor to change based on an applied stimulus voltage. A control circuit may receive a target value, such as a target output voltage, and retrieve or calculate a target inductance value or voltage to be applied to the inductor to generate the target output value. A feedback circuit may monitor the output value and adjust the switching frequency or voltage applied to the inductor during operation in order to adjust the output value.
Claims20
A method of tuning an integrated voltage regulator to produce a target output value, the method comprising:
- receiving the target output value for the integrated voltage regulator;
- determining a stimulus to be applied to an inductor of the integrated voltage regulator that corresponds to the target output value;
- applying the stimulus to the inductor to change an inductance of the inductor to a target inductance;
- and
- operating the integrated voltage regulator with the target inductance to produce the target output value.
A control circuit for tuning an integrated voltage regulator to produce a target output value, the control circuit comprising:
- one or more processors;
- and
- one or more memory devices comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
- receiving the target output value for the integrated voltage regulator;
- determining a stimulus to be applied to an inductor of the integrated voltage regulator that corresponds to the target output value;
- causing the stimulus to be applied to the inductor to change an inductance of the inductor to a target inductance;
- and
- causing the integrated voltage regulator to be operated with the target inductance to produce the target output value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.