US 9,519,041 B2 · System and method for providing an accurate and cost-effective current sensor calibration

Abstract

Systems and methods for calibrating on-die analog current sensors are disclosed. The methods can be routinely applied to perform a calibration such as during a system initialization or boot procedure or during other times when the system is in a sleep or power saving mode of operation. The systems determine a leakage current in the device under present environmental conditions. A baseline load current determined under the present temperature and input voltage is retrieved and used to determine a total leakage current. A reproducible and stable dynamic load is controllably applied to provide a known current to the on-die analog current sensor. A third mechanism permits repeatable adjustments to the known current that span the operational range of the on-die integrated current sensor. The responsiveness of the disclosed mechanisms ensures that temperature induced leakage does not increase significantly during a current sensor calibration.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A method for calibrating an integrated analog current sensor in a computing device, the method comprising:

applying power to an application processing system without enabling a clock network;
recording a measure of a leakage current of a processing resource;
recording at least one measured parameter for the processing resource;
retrieving a baseline leakage current for the processing resource responsive to the at least one measured parameter;
enabling the clock network, where the clock network is responsive to a first input signal and a second input signal to generate a dynamic load;
measuring a load current with the integrated analog current sensor being calibrated;
generating an estimate of the load current responsive to capacitance of the clock network, a clock frequency and an input voltage;
calculating a total current applied responsive to the leakage current and the estimate of the load current;
recording the total current applied and the load current;
adjusting the second input signal to adjust the dynamic load;
and
repeating the measuring, generating, recording the total current applied and the load current, and adjusting steps a desired number of times.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and method for providing an accurate and cost-effective current sensor calibration

Life of this patent

System and method for providing an accurate and cost-effective current sensor calibration

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims19