The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 08, 2022
Filed:
Nov. 22, 2019
University of South Florida, Tampa, FL (US);
Regents of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (US);
Longfei Wang, Tampa, FL (US);
S. Karen Khatamifard, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Ulya R. Karpuzcu, Minneapolis, MN (US);
Selçuk Köse, Tampa, FL (US);
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA, Tampa, FL (US);
REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, Minneapolis, MN (US);
Abstract
An apparatus and method are provided for mitigating performance degradation in digital low-dropout voltage regulators (DLDOs) caused by the effects of aging on the power transistors of the DLDO, such as by the effects of negative bias temperature instability (NBTI)-induced aging, for example. The apparatus comprises a shift register for use in a DLDO that is configured to activate and deactivate power transistors of the DLDO to evenly distribute electrical stress among the transistors in a way that mitigates performance degradation of the DLDO under various load current conditions. In addition, the shift register and methodology can be implemented in such a way that nearly no extra power and area overhead are consumed.