Isolating faulty decoupling capacitors
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsVikas Agarwal, Sanjay Dubey, Ankit K. Gheedia, Nikhil Kejriwal, Sankara Reddy S. Kommareddi
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Abstract
The present invention generally provides a decoupling capacitor circuit that is configured to determine whether a decoupling capacitor is defective. Upon determining that the decoupling capacitor is defective, the decoupling capacitor circuit may disconnect the decoupling capacitor from both, a positive segment and a negative segment of a power grid. In some embodiments, the decoupling capacitor circuit may be configured to reconnect the decoupling capacitor to the power grid upon receiving a reset signal.
Claims16
A circuit, comprising:
- decoupling capacitor coupled between a positive segment and negative segment of a power grid;
- a sense capacitor configured to detect leakage of current in the decoupling capacitor and, in response to detecting the leakage of current, disconnect the decoupling capacitor from the positive segment and the negative segment of the power grid;
- a first switch that couples a first electrode of the decoupling capacitor to a positive segment of a power grid;
- and
- a second switch that couples a second electrode of the decoupling capacitor to a negative segment of the power grid,
- wherein a first electrode of the sense capacitor is coupled with the second electrode of the decoupling capacitor and a second electrode of the sense capacitor is coupled with the negative segment of the power grid.
A method for operating a circuit, comprising:
- detecting leakage current in a decoupling capacitor coupled between a positive segment and negative segment of a power grid, wherein the leakage current is detected by a sense capacitor;
- and
- in response to detecting the leakage of current, disconnecting the decoupling capacitor from the positive segment and the negative segment of the power grid, wherein:
- a first electrode of a decoupling capacitor is coupled with a positive segment of a power and via a first switch;
- a second electrode of the decoupling capacitor is coupled with a negative segment of the power grid via a second switch;
- a first electrode of the sense capacitor is coupled with the second electrode of the decoupling capacitor;
- a second electrode of the sense capacitor is coupled with the negative segment of the power grid;
- and
- a third switch couples control inputs of the first switch and the second switch to the positive segment of the power supply, wherein a control input of the third switch is coupled with the first electrode of the sense capacitor.
An integrated circuit, comprising:
- a power grid comprising a positive segment and a negative segment;
- at least one circuit coupled with the positive segment and the negative segment;
- and
- at least one decoupling capacitor circuit comprising:
- a decoupling capacitor coupled between a positive segment and negative segment of a power grid;
- a sense capacitor configured to detect leakage of current in the decoupling capacitor and, in response to detecting the leakage of current, disconnect the decoupling capacitor from the positive segment and the negative segment of the power grid;
- a first switch that couples a first electrode of the decoupling capacitor to a positive segment of a power grid;
- and
- a second switch that couples a second electrode of the decoupling capacitor to a negative segment of the power grid,
- wherein a first electrode of the sense capacitor is counted with the second electrode of the decoupling capacitor and a second electrode of the sense capacitor is coupled with the negative segment of the power grid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.