Apple Inc.

Ruopeng Wang

Jay B Fletcher

Nathan F Hanagami

Jianbao Wang

Hao Zhou

Dashun Xue

Floyd L Dankert

Enrico Zanetti

Kiranjit Dhaliwal

Ludmil N Nikolov

Jiandong Jiang

Maryam Mortazavi

Systems and methods described herein correspond to supply harvesting operations. Power management circuitry may receive a supply voltage from other power management circuitry. This supply voltage may be a harvested supply from the other power management circuitry. Moreover, some of the power management circuitry may be operated as controller power management circuitry to supply the supply voltage via one or more rails and some of the power management circuitry may be operated as leaf power management circuitry to harvest the supply voltage from the one or more rails. Leaf power management circuitry may exclude a regulator, enabling that leaf power management circuitry to be entered into a lower power mode than previously enabled when the regulator was included.

General purpose input/output (GPIO) supply harvesting

A voltage regulator circuit includes a switch device that is coupled between an input power supply and a regulated power supply node. The voltage regulator circuit adjusts a value of a current flowing from the input power supply to the regulated power supply node by modifying a voltage level of a control node coupled to the switch device. A control circuit adjusts the voltage level of the control node using an error signal based on a comparison of the voltage level of the regulated power supply node and a reference voltage. To improve the response time of the voltage regulator circuit to changes in load current, the control circuit additionally sources current to and/or sinks current from the control node based on a voltage level of the control node.

Voltage mode low-dropout regulator circuit with reduced quiescent current

A level shifter circuit with an intermediate power domain and method for operating the same is disclosed. The level shifter circuit includes an input circuit, an output circuit, and an intermediate circuit. The input circuit is coupled to receive an input signal from a first voltage domain operating according to a first supply voltage, and generates a first intermediate signal. The intermediate circuit receives the first intermediate signal and generates a second intermediate signal. The output circuit receives the intermediate signal and provides an output signal into a second voltage domain operating at a second supply voltage different from the first. A voltage multiplexer is configured to provide one of the first or second supply voltages to the intermediate circuit depending on a state of the input signal.

Level shifter circuit with intermediate power domain

A voltage regulator having a pre-regulator circuit is disclosed. A low dropout (LDO) voltage regulator includes an amplifier circuit, a current buffer circuit, and a pre-regulator circuit. The current buffer circuit includes a transistor having a gate terminal coupled to the amplifier output. The current buffer provides a current based at least in part on the output signal generated by the amplifier. The pre-regulator circuit is coupled to provide a dynamic supply voltage to the current buffer. They dynamic supply voltage depends at least in part on a fixed supply voltage provided thereto, as well as the output voltage provided by the LDO voltage regulator.

High current LDO voltage regulator with dynamic pre-regulator

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Ruopeng Wang