US 7,624,303 B2Granted

Generation of system power-good signal in hot-swap power controllers

AssigneeMicrel, Inc.

InventorsWilliam Andrew Burkland, Adolfo A. Garcia

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Abstract

A power controller system is described herein, which may consist of one or more power controller ICs and other components. Each power controller selectively couples power supply voltages to a plurality of electrical devices, such as cards that have been inserted into expansion slots in a server. To simplify processing by a system processor monitoring the health of the power subsystem, each power controller IC asserts a power-good signal at a power-good terminal only if the operating conditions for all channels are satisfactory. A power good signal is generated even if a channel is not supplying power to a channel due to a card retention switch signal not being asserted or the channel is not enabled. The power-good signals from all power controllers in the system are then ANDed together to determine if any of the power controllers are experiencing unsatisfactory conditions. If the resulting single signal is an asserted power-good signal, then the system knows that all channels in all the power controllers are experiencing satisfactory conditions, even though some channels may not be enabled or there are no modules (e.g., cards) connected to a power controller.

Claims29

Dependent claims

A power control system comprising:

a first power controller comprising:
a first control terminal for connection to a first switch for selectively coupling a power supply voltage to a first electrical device;
first fault detection circuitry for receiving a sense signal indicating any fault in delivery of the power supply voltage to the first electrical device, the fault detection circuitry generating at least one fault indication signal indicating whether there is a first fault condition;
first circuitry for detecting a level of voltage provided to the first electrical device and generating a first signal, a first state of the first signal indicating that power to the first electrical device is satisfactory, a second state of the first signal indicating that power to the first electrical device is unsatisfactory;
first logic circuitry receiving the first signal, the at least one fault indication signal, and at least one other first status signal, wherein the at least one other first status signal is processed by the first logic circuitry to determine whether the second state of the first signal is a result of other than the first fault condition;
and
a first output terminal connected to an output of the first logic circuitry,
the first output terminal providing a first power-good signal having a first state that indicates that conditions of the first power controller are unsatisfactory, wherein the first logic circuitry is configured to output the first state of the first power-good signal at least if the second state of the first signal is due to the at least one fault indication signal indicating that there is a first fault condition, and wherein the first logic circuitry is configured such that the second state of the first signal does not force the first state of the first power-good signal to occur if the second state of the first signal is a result of other than the first fault condition,
the first output terminal providing the first power-good signal having a second state that indicates that conditions of the first power controller are satisfactory, wherein the first logic circuitry is configured such that the second state of the first signal does not affect the state of the first power-good signal if the logic circuitry determines that the second state of the first signal is a result of other than the first fault condition,
the first output terminal for connection to circuitry external to the first power controller.

7 more elements

A method of operating a power controller system comprising:

generating a control signal by a first power controller at a first control terminal connected to a first switch that selectively couples a power supply voltage to a first electrical device and uncouples the power supply voltage from the first electrical device;
receiving, by first fault detection circuitry, a sense signal for indicating any fault in delivery of the power supply voltage to the first electrical device, the fault detection circuitry generating at least one fault indication signal indicating whether there is a first fault condition;
detecting, by first circuitry, a level of voltage provided to the first electrical device and generating a first signal, a first state of the first signal indicating that power to the first electrical device is satisfactory, a second state of the first signal indicating that power to the first electrical device is unsatisfactory;
receiving, by first logic circuitry, the first signal, the at least one fault indication signal, and at least one other first status signal, wherein the at least one other first status signal is processed by the first logic circuitry to determine whether the second state of the first signal is a result of other than a first fault condition;
and
providing, by a first output terminal connected to an output of the first logic circuitry, a first power-good signal having a first state that indicates that conditions of the first power controller are unsatisfactory, wherein the first logic circuitry is configured to output the first state of the first power-good signal at least if the second state of the first signal is due to the at least one fault indication signal indicating that there is a first fault condition, and wherein the first logic circuitry is configured such that the second state of the first signal does not force the first state of the first power-good signal to occur if the second state of the first signal is a result of other than the first fault condition,
the first output terminal providing the first power-good signal having a second state that indicates that conditions of the first power controller are satisfactory, wherein the first logic circuitry is configured such that the second state of the first signal does not affect the state of the first power-good signal if the logic circuitry determines that the second state of the first signal is a result of other than the first fault condition,
the first power-good signal being supplied to circuitry external to the first power controller.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.