Apple Inc.

Advanced Micro Devices Corporation

Globalfoundries Inc.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Shawn Searles

Sanjay Pant

Jun Zhai

Jay B Fletcher

Emerson S Fang

Fabio Gozzini

Vidhya Ramachandran

Hao Zhou

Joseph T DiBene, Ii

Jared L Zerbe

Chonghua Zhong

Hubert Attah

Nicholas Humphries

David P Cappabianca

Grace I Chuang

Scott C Johnson

Kunzhong Hu

Inder M Sodhi

Mengzhi Pang

Olivier Girard

Enrico Zanetti

Alexander Kalnitsky

Brian W Amick

Alberto Alessandro Angelo Puggelli

Victor Zyuban

Hanwoo Cho

Vincenzo Bisogno

Ravinder Reddy Rachala

Faisal A Syed

Michele De Fazio

Curtis M Brody

Ofir Gilad

Christopher M Kurker

Vincent R Von Kaenel

Mohamed Hassan Abu-Rahma

Bo Yang

Tahsin Askar

Richard W Reeves

Nir Dahan

Stephen F Greenwood

Ronald L Pettyjohn

Bruce A Doyle

Donald H Walters

Ludmil N Nikolov

Tiago Filipe Galhoz Patrao

Karthik Manickam

Andrea Lazzeri

Andrea Barsanti

Lothar Münch

Preethi Damodaran

Alvin L Loke

Norman Jay Rohrer

Gerald Robert Talbot

Michael Couleur

Philip Enrique Madrid

Guhan Krishnan

Yizhang Yang

Mark A Yoshimoto

Oswin E Housty

Anil Kumar

Michael A Dreesen

Huabo Chen

Nikola Jovanovic

Nathan F Hanagami

Thomas H Hamilton

Floyd L Dankert

Ryan J Hensley

Jaemyung Lim

Sarfraz Shaikh

Le Wang

Paul McCloskey

Young Doo Jeon

Dimitry Patent

Sean Cian O'Mathuna

Zoran Pavlovic

Matthew Cooke

William Lawton

Graeme Maxwell

Joseph O'Brien

Hugh Charles Smiddy

Georg Diebel

Jacek R Wiatrowski

Lena Ahlen

Santosh Kulkarni

Nicholas T Humphries

A power delivery system included in a computer system uses multiple power converter circuits to generate respective voltage levels on multiple power supply nodes. An embodiment of the power delivery system includes an input power converter circuit that generates a voltage level for use by host and follower power converter circuits. The host power converter circuit generates an external demand current that is shared by multiple follower power converter circuits to regulate the voltage level on the multiple power supply nodes. The power delivery system can be scaled to different platforms of the computer system by adjusting the number of follower power converter circuits.

Scalable power delivery system

A power converter circuit included in a computer system may include a phase circuit and a sample circuit. The phase circuit compares a voltage level of the regulated power supply node to a reference voltage to generate a demand current that is used to adjust the voltage level of the regulated power supply node. The phase circuit also digitizes the demand current and stores the resultant bit stream in a memory circuit. The sample circuit generates timestamp information that points to particular storage locations in the memory circuit that correspond to trigger events, allowing the operation of the power converter circuit to be analyzed during different circumstances as well as to adjust operating parameters of the power converter circuit.

Current measurement for power converter circuits

A voltage regulator circuit included in a computer system may employ a control circuit and a switch array that includes multiple switch circuits. Different groups of switch circuits that include respective groups of switch devices are coupled between an input power supply node and corresponding regulated power supply nodes. To maintain desired respective voltages on the regulated power supply nodes, the control circuit compares the voltages of the regulated power supply nodes to corresponding reference voltages and, based on results of the comparisons, opens and closes various ones of the switch devices included in the different groups of switch circuits.

Regulator switch array

A semiconductor device package is described that includes a power consuming device (such as an SOC device). The power consuming device may include one or more current consuming elements. A passive device may be coupled to the power consuming device. The passive device may include a plurality of passive elements formed on a semiconductor substrate. The passive elements may be arranged in an array of structures on the semiconductor substrate. The power consuming device and the passive device may be coupled using one or more terminals. The passive device and power consuming device coupling may be configured in such a way that the power consuming device determines functionally the way the passive device elements will be used.

Multi-die fine grain integrated voltage regulation

A power delivery system included in a computer system using multiple power converter circuits to generate respective voltage levels on multiple power supply nodes. The power delivery system includes a step-down power converter circuit that generates a voltage level for use by host and follower power converter circuits. The host power converter circuit generates an external demand current that is shared by multiple follower power converter circuits to regulate the voltage level on the multiple power supply nodes. The power delivery system can be scaled to different platforms of the computer system by adjusting the number of follower power converter circuits.

Systems that include integrated circuit dies and voltage regulator units are disclosed. Such systems may include a voltage regulator module and an integrated circuit mounted in a common system package. The voltage regulator module may include a voltage regulator circuit and one or more passive devices mounted to a common substrate, and the integrated circuit may include a System-on-a-chip. The system package may include an interconnect region that includes wires fabricated on multiple conductive layers within the interconnect region. At least one power supply terminal of the integrated circuit may be coupled to an output of the voltage regulator module via a wire included in the interconnect region.

Structure and method for fabricating a computing system with an integrated voltage regulator module

A power management subsystem included in a computer system may include a host device and a power circuit group. The power circuit group includes multiple power circuits arranged in a tree-like structure. The resources of the multiple power circuits are mapped to corresponding addresses within a common address space. The host device sends, via a first communication bus, commands to a branch power circuit of the multiple power circuits, which, in turn, relays the commands, using a second communication bus, to corresponding ones of the other power circuits based on respective power resources specified in the commands received from the host device.

Power management unit

An apparatus includes a control circuit and a voltage regulator circuit coupled to a regulated power supply node. The voltage regulator circuit is configured to generate a power signal on the regulated power supply node using a reference voltage level. The apparatus further includes a control circuit that is configured to determine an operating mode using results of a comparison of a threshold value and a load current being drawn from the regulated power supply node by a load circuit. The control circuit may be further configured to set, in a first operating mode, the reference voltage level independently of the load current, and set, in a second operating mode, the reference voltage level using the load current.

Multiphase power converter with different voltage positioning per phase

A converter circuit, included in a power converter circuit, may generate a given voltage level on a regulated power supply node of a computer system. A control circuit may monitor a voltage level and assert a control signal in response to a determination that a regulation event has occurred. A boost converter circuit, included in the power converter circuit, may inject charge into to the regulated power supply node via a capacitor, in response to an assertion of the control signal.

Power converter with charge injection from booster rail

A voltage regulator circuit included in a computer system may generate a voltage level on a power supply signal using a source power supply signal and based initial values of one or more operation parameters derived from wafer-level test data. One or more operation characteristics of the voltage regulator circuit may be sampled, by a measurement circuit, at multiple time points to generated measurement data. A control circuit may adapt operation of the voltage regulator circuit based on the measurement data.

Computer system power monitoring

A power management circuit included in a computer system regulates a voltage level of a power supply node used by other circuits in the computer system. The power management circuit includes a control circuit and multiple phase circuits coupled to the regulated power supply node via corresponding inductors. The control circuit selectively activates particular ones of the multiple phase circuits allowing them source respective currents to the regulated power supply node. The control circuit also selectively activates particular ones of other phase circuits that are external to the power management circuit and coupled to the regulated power supply node via their own corresponding inductors. Once activated, the external phase circuits source respective currents to the regulated power supply node via their corresponding inductors.

Multi-phase power converter with external phase circuits

An amplifier system includes a differential amplifier and a calibration circuit. In response to a calibration operation, the calibration circuit generates a calibration value based on a test output signal generated by the differential amplifier circuit using a test input signal. The calibration value may be used to adjust loading of internal nodes of the differential amplifier circuit to compensate for imbalance in the differential amplifier circuit resulting from variation in manufacturing. By compensating for the imbalance, the offset of the differential amplifier may be reduced, allowing resolution of smaller differential voltages, thereby improving the performance of circuits employing the differential amplifier circuit.

Amplifier offset cancelation

A voltage regulator circuit may generate a regulated voltage level using a voltage level of a feedback node. The regulated voltage level may be distributed, via a power distribution network, to package power supply node of a package, into which an integrated circuit has been mounted. Power switches included in the integrated circuit may couple the package power supply node to respective local power supply nodes in the integrated circuit. A particular power switch may selectively couple different ones of the local power supply nodes to the feedback node, allowing the voltage regulator circuit to compensate for reductions in the regulated voltage level due to the power distribution network, as well as adjust the regulated voltage level based on power consumptions of load circuits coupled to the local power supply nodes.

Voltage regulation using local feedback

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Austin, TX, United States of America

Shawn Searles