Measuring power supply stability

A system for measuring the stability of a power signal from a power supply, comprising

• a threshold violation detector including:
• a comparison device having a power signal input, an upper threshold signal input, a lower threshold signal input, and a comparison result output, the comparator configured to compare the power signal on the power signal input with an upper threshold on the upper threshold signal input and a lower threshold on the lower threshold signal input to present a comparison result signal on the comparison result output;
• and
• an indicator having a threshold violation output and a comparison input receiving the comparison result signal from the comparator, the indicator presenting a threshold violation signal on the threshold violation output in response to an indication by the comparison result signal that the power signal has violated one of the upper threshold and the lower threshold.

A method of determining the sensitivity of a threshold violation detector for monitoring when a supply output of a power supply violates a threshold, comprising:

• providing the threshold violation detector with the threshold;
• monitoring an output of the threshold violation detector for an indication that the supply output has violated the threshold;
• inputting a pulse having a dimension D to the threshold violation detector;
• and
• repeatedly incrementing the dimension D and inputting the pulse until the output of the threshold violation detector indicates that the pulse has violated the threshold.

A method of determining a noise level on a supply output of a power supply, comprising:

• providing a threshold violation detector with a threshold and the supply output of the power supply;
• monitoring an output of the threshold violation detector for an indication that the supply output has violated the threshold;
• and
• repeatedly incrementing the threshold toward the supply output of the power supply until the output of the threshold violation detector indicates that the supply output has violated the threshold.