Intel Corporation

Alexander Lyakhov

Gerhard Schrom

J Keith Hodgson

Narayanan Natarajan

Narayanan Raghuraman

Chiu Keung Tang

Jonathan P Douglas

Michael Zelikson

Sergio Carlo Rodriguez

Fabrice Paillet

Alexander Gendler

Joseph Shor

Sameer Shekhar

William Dawson Kesling

George L Geannopoulos

Kosta Luria

Mark S Milshtein

Nimrod Angel

Ravi Sankar Vunnam

Juan Munoz Constantine

Rachid Rayess

Sarath S Makala

Michael W Rogers

Keith Hodgson

Sidhanto Roy

Efraim Rotem

Krishnakanth Venkata Sistla

Stephen H Gunther

Ankush Varma

Edward Allyn Burton

Eugene Gorbatov

Harry G Skinner

Harish Krishnamurthy

Alexander Uan-Zo-Li

Maynard C Falconer

Anant S Deval

Julius Yuli Mandelblat

Larisa Novakovsky

Amit Kumar Jain

Philip R Lehwalder

George Leifman

Samie B Samaan

Arik Gihon

Dawson Kesling

Khondker Z Ahmed

George Matthew

Lev Makovsky

Patrick K Leung

Ariel Sabba

Niv Tokman

Vishram Shriram Pandit

Tamir Salus

Vivek Saxena

Pushkar Dixit

Various embodiments provide a voltage regulator circuit including two or more discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) phases coupled to an output node and coupled in parallel with one another. A control circuit may detect a trigger and switch all of the two or more DCM phases to a first state (charge state) responsive to the detection. The control circuit may switch a first DCM phase, of the two or more DCM phases, to a second state (discharge state) after a first predetermined time period in the first state and may switch a second DCM phase, of the two or more DCM phases, to the second state after a second predetermined time period in the first state, wherein the second predetermined time period is different than the first predetermined time period. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) voltage regulator circuit with reduced output voltage ripple

A compensator is described with higher bandwidth than a traditional differential compensator, lower area than traditional differential compensator (e.g., 40% lower area), and lower power than traditional differential compensator. The compensator includes a differential to single-ended circuitry that reduces the number of passive devices used to compensate an input signal. The high bandwidth compensator allows for faster power state and/or voltage transitions. For example, a pre-charge technique is applied to handle faster power state transitions that enables aggressive dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) and voltage transitions. The compensator is configurable in that it can operate in voltage mode or current mode.

Differential to single-ended high bandwidth compensator

A power supply architecture combines the benefits of a traditional single stage power delivery, when there are no additional power losses in the integrated VR with low VID and low CPU losses of FIVR (fully integrated voltage regulator) and D-LVR (digital linear voltage regulator). The D-LVR is not in series with the main power flow, but in parallel. By placing the digital-LVR in parallel to a primary VR (e.g., motherboard VR), the CPU VID is lowered and the processor core power consumption is lowered. The power supply architecture reduces the guard band for input power supply level, thereby reducing the overall power consumption because the motherboard VR specifications can be relaxed, saving cost and power. The power supply architecture drastically increases the CPU performance at a small extra cost for the silicon and low complexity of tuning.

Digital linear regulator clamping method and apparatus

Apparatuses and methods of current balancing, current sensing and phase balancing, offset cancellation, digital to analog current converter with monotonic output using binary coded input (without binary to thermometer decoder), compensator for a voltage regulator (VR), etc. In one example, a plurality of inductors is coupled to a capacitor and a load; a plurality of bridges, each of which is coupled to a corresponding inductor from the plurality of inductors; and a plurality of current sensors, each of which is coupled to a bridge to sense current through a transistor of the bridge

Current balancing, current sensor, and phase balancing apparatus and method for a voltage regulator

Described is an apparatus which comprises: a first power supply node to supply input power supply; a power transistor coupled to the first power supply node; a multiplexer to selectively control gate terminal of the power transistor according to whether the power transistor is to operate as part of a low dropout voltage regulator (LDO-VR) or is to operate as a digital switch; and a second power supply node coupled to the power transistor, the second power supply node to provide power supply to a load from the power transistor.

Low dropout voltage regulator integrated with digital power gate driver

Various embodiments provide a voltage regulator circuit with automatic phase shedding. A control circuit may control first transitions of a power state of the voltage regulator based on an average current draw of the voltage regulator. The control circuit may further control second transitions of the power state of the voltage regulator based on a voltage droop of the output voltage and/or a peak current draw of the voltage regulator. The first transitions may be performed synchronously, and the second transitions may be performed asynchronously. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Autonomous phase shedding control for a voltage regulator

Described is an apparatus which comprises: a low-side switch coupled to an output node for providing regulated voltage supply; and a first driver operable to cause the low-side switch to turn off when the output node rises above a first transistor threshold voltage. Described is also a voltage regulator which comprises: a signal generator to generate a pulse-width modulated (PWM) signal; a bridge having a low-side switch coupled to an output node for providing regulated voltage supply according to the PWM signal; a first driver operable to cause the low-side switch to turn off when the output node rises above a first transistor threshold voltage; and a bridge controller to provide control signals to the first driver. The voltage regulator may operate without diode clamps and its operation is self-timed. The voltage regulator also provides tolerance against process variation.

Bridge driver for a switching voltage regulator which is operable to soft-switch and hard-switch

Apparatuses and methods of current balancing, current sensing and phase balancing, offset cancellation, digital to analog current converter with monotonic output using binary coded input (without binary to thermometer decoder), and compensator for a voltage regulator (VR), are provided. In one example, an apparatus includes: a plurality of inductors coupled to a capacitor and a load; a plurality of bridges, each of which is coupled to a corresponding inductor from the plurality of inductors; and a plurality of current sensors, each of which is coupled to a bridge to sense current through a transistor of the bridge.

Techniques and mechanisms for mitigating an overshoot of a supply voltage provided with a voltage regulator (VR). In an embodiment, buck converter functionality of a VR is provided with first circuitry comprising a first inductor and first switch circuits variously coupled thereto. Second circuitry of the VR comprises a second inductor and second switch circuits variously coupled thereto. In response to an indication of a voltage overshoot condition, respective states of the first switch circuits and the second switch circuits are configured to enable a conductive path for dissipating energy with the first inductor, the second inductor, and various ones of the first switch circuits and the second switch circuits. In another embodiment, mitigating the voltage overshoot condition comprises alternately toggling between two different configurations of the second switch circuits.

Device, method and system to mitigate a voltage overshoot event

Described are apparatuses and methods of current balancing, current sensing and phase balancing, offset cancellation, digital to analog current converter with monotonic output using binary coded input (without binary to thermometer decoder), compensator for a voltage regulator (VR), etc. In one example, apparatus comprises: a plurality of inductors coupled to a capacitor and a load; a plurality of bridges, each of which is coupled to a corresponding inductor from the plurality of inductors; and a plurality of current sensors, each of which is coupled to a bridge to sense current through a transistor of the bridge.

An apparatus is provided which comprises: at least two switches in series between an input voltage node and a ground terminal; an inductor coupled between a mid-point of the at least two switches and an output terminal; a first circuitry to compare a current through the inductor with a threshold current, and to control one or both of the at least two switches, based at least in part on the comparison; and a second circuitry to randomly vary the threshold current over consecutive cycles of switching of the at least two switches.

Reducing electromagnetic interference in switching regulators

Apparatuses and methods of current balancing, current sensing and phase balancing, offset cancellation, digital to analog current converter with monotonic output using binary coded input (without binary to thermometer decoder), compensator for a voltage regulator (VR), etc. are provided here. An apparatus is provided which comprises: a plurality of inductors coupled to a capacitor and a load; a plurality of bridges, each of which is coupled to a corresponding inductor from the plurality of inductors; and a plurality of current sensors, each of which is coupled to a bridge to sense current through a transistor of the bridge.

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Haifa, Israel

Alexander Lyakhov