System and Method for Determining Thermal Management Policy From Leakage Current Measurement

A computer system for managing thermal energy generation in a portable computing device (“PCD”), the system comprising:

• a monitor module operable to:
• determine that a power frequency associated with a processing component positioned within the PCD is substantially zero, wherein current remaining on a power rail associated with the processing component may correspond to a presence of a leakage current;
• and
• measure the leakage current on the power rail associated with the processing component;
• and
• a thermal policy manager (“TPM”) module operable to:
• based on the measured leakage current, determine a thermal status of the processing component;
• and
• based on the thermal status of the processing component, evaluate thermal management policies associated with the processing component.

A computer system for managing thermal energy generation in a portable computing device, the system comprising:

• means for determining that a power frequency associated with a processing component positioned within the PCD is substantially zero, wherein current remaining on a power rail associated with the processing component may correspond to a presence of a leakage current;
• means for measuring the leakage current on the power rail associated with the processing component;
• means for determining a thermal status of the processing component based on the measured leakage current;
• and
• means for evaluating thermal management policies associated with the processing component based on the thermal status of the processing component.

A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for managing thermal energy generation in a portable computing device, said method comprising:

• determining that a power frequency associated with a processing component positioned within the PCD is substantially zero, wherein current remaining on a power rail associated with the processing component may correspond to a presence of a leakage current;
• measuring the leakage current on the power rail associated with the processing component;
• based on the measured leakage current, determining a thermal status of the processing component;
• and
• based on the thermal status of the processing component, evaluating thermal management policies associated with the processing component.