Intel Corporation

Anand Ramasundar

James Keith Hodgson

Cary Renzema

Po-Cheng Chen

Fabrice Paillet

Harish Krishnamurthy

Sergio Carlo Rodriguez

Khondker Z Ahmed

Sami Hyvonen

Christopher J Mandic

Jason Muhlestein

Alex Santiago Rodriguez

Saravanan Ramamoorthy

Ruthvin Jeevan Suvarna

Embodiments herein relate to a feedback loop in a digital voltage regulator for controlling an output voltage. To avoid instability at light current loads, a gain of the loop is reduced as a power gate code indicates a reduced number of branches in set of current sources are enabled. In an example implementation, the code is classified into one range of a number of ranges, and the gain is set based on the one range. The gain can decrease each time the code enters a lower range, as indicated by the code crossing a threshold or predetermined value. For example, the gain can decrease by half each time the code enters a lower range.

Adaptive gain for compensation in a digital voltage regulator

A reduced-size replica of power gate transistors may be used within a closed-loop voltage regulator to measure the average current delivered by the transistors in the non-replica power gate. The measured current is compared against a known reference current, and a feedback loop is used to modify the gate bias of the power gate and replica power gate transistors. An improved current sensing power gate replica solution may include measuring current from a small replica of the power gate and extrapolating the total current by digitally multiplying the replica current by the ratio of the size of the enabled power gates to the size of the replicas. The current through the replicas, which substantially matches the current in equivalent power gate devices, may be collected on an analog bus and conducted across a known resistor to generate a voltage that determines an estimated current of the power gate devices.

Digital voltage regulator current sensing and regulation

An apparatus, system, and method for digital voltage regulator (DVR) control are provided. A DVR includes comparators configured to determine whether VLOAD drops below a gradual non-linear control (NLC) undershoot threshold voltage, rises above or drops below a reference voltage, and rises above a gradual NLC overshoot threshold voltage, respectively, power gates (PGs) configured to adjust VOUT based on a provided PG code; and VR controller circuitry comprising synchronous LC circuitry configured to increase or decrease, by a first increment, the PG code responsive to the VLOAD dropping below the reference voltage and rising above the reference voltage, and asynchronous gradual NLC circuitry configured to increase or decrease, by a second increment greater than the first increment and less than half a maximum PG code value, the PG code responsive to the VLOAD dropping below the gradual NLC undershoot threshold voltage and rising above the gradual NLC overshoot threshold voltage.

DVR with pulsed control and gradual NLC

An apparatus, system, and method for voltage regulator (VR) control are provided. An apparatus can include first, second, and third comparators configured to determine whether a load voltage (VLOAD) drops below a lower non-linear control (NLC) threshold, drops below a lower linear control (LC) threshold, and exceeds an upper LC threshold, respectively. The apparatus can include power gates (PGs) configured to adjust an output voltage (VOUT) based on a provided power gate (PG) code. The apparatus can include voltage regulator (VR) controller circuitry comprising synchronous LC circuitry and asynchronous NLC circuitry, the LC circuitry configured to increment or decrement the PG code responsive to the VLOAD dropping below the LC threshold and exceeding the upper LC threshold, respectively, and the NLC circuitry configured to increase the PG code based on a number of consecutive NLC droop events and responsive to the VLOAD dropping below the lower NLC threshold.

Voltage regulator with binary search and linear control

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Portland, OR, United States of America

Anand Ramasundar