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US 7,030,661 B1Granted
Power supply system and method that provides a low-cost approach to voltage scaling
AssigneeNational Semiconductor Corporation
InventorJames Thomas Doyle
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A low-cost approach to voltage scaling is realized by latching the output of a propagation delay detector, and inputting the latched output to a string digital-to-analog (DAC) converter. The string DAC generates a DC voltage in response to the latched values, which is fed back to the propagation delay detector.
Claims24
A power supply system comprising:
- a detector that measures a propagation delay of a signal edge, and outputs information that identifies the propagation delay of the signal edge;
- and
- a voltage generator connected to the detector and a power node, the voltage generator having a number of resistive nodes, a number of resistive elements, and a number of switches, the resistive elements being connected in series such that each resistive element is connected between two resistive nodes, a first resistive element in the series being connected to a voltage source via a resistive node, a last resistive element in the series being connected to ground via a resistive node, each switch being connected to a resistive node and the power node.
A power supply system comprising:
- a propagation delay detector that measures a propagation delay of a launch signal, and outputs a plurality of detection signals that identify the propagation delay the propagation delay detector including a plurality of substantially equal delay blocks that have a corresponding plurality of outputs that output the plurality of detection signals as a thermometer code;
- a latch circuit that latches the detection signals as a plurality of latched signals in response to a sample signal;
- and
- a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) connected to the latch, the DAC receiving the plurality of latched signals, and generating a voltage on a power node in response to the plurality of latched signals.
1 more element
A power supply system comprising:
- a propagation delay detector that measures a propagation delay of a launch signal, and outputs a plurality of detection signals that identify the propagation delay;
- a latch circuit that latches the detection signals as a plurality of latched signals in response to a sample signal;
- a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) connected to the latch, the DAC receiving the plurality of latched signals, and generating a voltage on a power node in response to the plurality of latched signals;
- and
- a reset circuit that generates a reset signal in response to the launch signal and the sample signal, the reset signal resetting the propagation delay detector.
2 more elements
A power supply system comprising:
- a two or more power supply circuits, each power supply circuit having:
- a propagation delay detector that measures a propagation delay of a launch signal, and outputs a plurality of detection signals that identify the propagation delay;
- a latch circuit that latches the detection signals as a plurality of latched signals in response to a sample signal;
- and
- a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) connected to the latch, the DAC receiving the plurality of latched signals, and generating a voltage on a power node in response to the plurality of latched signals;
- and
- a two or more current boosting stages, each power supply circuit being connected to a current boosting stage.
4 more elements
A method of providing power, the method comprising:
- measuring a propagation delay of a signal edge, and outputting information that identifies the propagation delay of the signal edge;
- simultaneously generating two or more substantially constant supply voltages from a voltage source;
- and
- processing the information to place one of the supply voltages on a power node.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.