International Business Machines Corporation

Claudio Siviero

Martin Eckert

Otto Andreas Torreiter

Roland Frech

Thomas-Michael Winkel

Jochen Supper

A method for determining power consumption of a power domain within an integrated circuit is presented. In a first step, a local power supply impedance profile (Z(f)) of this power domain is determined. Subsequently, a local time-resolved power supply voltage (U(t)) is measured while a well-defined periodic activity is executed in power domain. A set of time-domain measured voltage data (U(t)) is thus accumulated and transformed into the frequency domain to yield a voltage spectrum (U(f)). A current spectrum I(t) is calculated from this voltage profile (U(f)) by using the power supply impedance profile Z(f) of this power domain as I(t)=F{U(f)/Z(f)}. Finally, a time-resolved power consumption spectrum P(t) is determined from measured voltage spectrum U(t)) and calculated current spectrum (I(t)). This power consumption (P(t)) may be compared with a reference (P(t)) to verify whether power consumption within power domain matches expectations.

Measuring power consumption in an integrated circuit

Network power fault detection. At least one first network device is instructed to temporarily disconnect from a power supply path of a network, and at least one characteristic of the power supply path of the network is measured at a second network device connected to the network while the at least one first network device is temporarily disconnected from the network.

Growing community of inventors

Boeblingen, Germany

Claudio Siviero