Current sense accuracy improvement for MOSFET RDS (on) sense based voltage regulator by adaptive temperature compensation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10338669-B2
Application number	US-201514924644-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 27, 2015
Priority date	Oct 27, 2015
Publication date	Jul 2, 2019
Grant date	Jul 2, 2019

Abstract

An information handling system (IHS) includes temperature-compensated power control by a voltage regulation (VR) module to: (i) receive a monitored current (Imon) value from a current sensor integrated into the VR module; (ii) receive a temperature value from the temperature sensor also integrated into the VR module; (iii) determine a temperature-compensated Imon value based at least in part on the Imon value, the temperature value, and an empirically-derived temperature coefficient defined at the Imon value and the temperature value; and (iv) control the voltage-regulated power at least in part based on the temperature-compensated Imon value. The empirically-derived temperature coefficient adjusts for nonlinear portions of temperature coupling relationship between a portion of an integrated circuit (IC) die that can include the current sensor and the temperature sensor and a temperature experienced by by active portion of VR module.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An Information Handling System (IHS) having temperature-compensated power control, the IHS comprising:
a computing component;
a voltage regulation (VR) module comprising:
an integrated circuit die;
a power stage component contained in the integrated circuit die and comprising a high side driver and a low side driver both electrically connected to power the computing component with voltage-regulated power;
a current sensor contained in the integrated circuit die to measure a monitored current (Imon) value of the voltage-regulated power; and
a temperature sensor contained in the integrated circuit die and which measures a temperature value at one location of the integrated circuit die, wherein the temperature value sensed at the location has a nonlinear temperature coefficient relationship with a second temperature of the high side driver; and

a VR controller in communication with the current sensor and the temperature sensor and which executes instructions that configure the VR controller to:
receive the Imon value from the current sensor;
receive the temperature value from the temperature sensor;
determine a temperature-compensated Imon value based at least in part on the Imon value, the temperature value, and an empirically-derived temperature coefficient defined at the Imon value and the temperature value, the empirically-derived temperature coefficient being determined by a testing phase wherein a testing system:
identifies an identifier (ID) for a power stage (Pstage) of the integrated circuit;
performs an iterative process for thermal coefficient tuning, which records temperature and an Iout matrix;
empirically captures sample values as an integrated circuit die temperature of the VR module continues to rise across an operating temperature range of the VR module;
samples output current (Iout) and forms an output current matrix as an array, based on sampled output voltage and defined temperature points; and
in response to completion of the iterative process, generates, by the testing system, a nonlinear thermal coefficient, current offset curve by performing one of: (i) calculating piecewise linear values to extrapolate between sampled values stored within an empirical database; or (ii) performing high-order polynomial curve fitting to extrapolate between the sampled values within the empirical database, wherein the empirical database is processed to create a look-up table that stores temperature coupling coefficients that provides fine-tuned temperature compensation for Imon across a VR operation range; and

control the voltage-regulated power at least in part based on the temperature-compensated Imon value determined at least in part by the empirically-derived temperature coefficient.

2. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the VR controller executes instructions to configure the IHS to:
determine an identifier of a type of voltage regulator module; and
determine the temperature-compensated Imon value based at least in part on the identifier.

3. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein:
the current sensor comprises an inductor Direct Current Resistance (DCR) sense circuit; and
the temperature sensor comprises a thermistor.

4. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein:
the power stage component generates voltage-regulated power that includes a pulse width modulated (PWM) signal at a selected offset and a selected gain; and
the VR controller executes instructions that configures the VR controller to:
receive the PWM signal, the selected offset, and the selected gain from the power stage component; and
determine the temperature-compensated Imon value based at least in part on the PWM signal, the selected offset, and the selected gain received from the power stage component.

5. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein:
the high side driver and the low side driver each comprise a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET); and
the temperature sensor is contained in the integrated circuit die at a location proximate to the MOSFET of the low side driver.

6. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the VR controller retrieves a look-up table and determines the temperature-compensated Imon value by utilizing the look-up table.

7. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the empirically-derived temperature coefficient adjusts for nonlinear portions of a temperature coupling relationship between a portion of the integrated circuit (IC) die that can include the current sensor and the temperature sensor and a temperature experienced by an active portion of the VR module.

8. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the VR controller performs temperature compensation for a particular configuration of the VR module, wherein the VR controller:
retrieves a pre-optimized empirical database;
receives multiple variables in order to select a coefficient from the pre-optimized empirical database; and
determines adaptive temperature coupling coefficients to achieve temperature compensation characteristics to calibrate a nonlinear segment of monitored current (Imon) curve in a heavy load range.

9. A method of performing temperature-compensated power control of an information handling system (IHS), the method comprising:
measuring, by a current sensor contained in an integrated circuit die, a monitored current (Imon) value of voltage-regulated power by a power stage having a high side driver and a low side driver contained in the integrated circuit die;
measuring a temperature value using a temperature sensor at one location of the integrated circuit die having a nonlinear temperature coefficient with the high side driver;
retrieving an empirically-derived temperature coefficient at the Imon value and the temperature value, the empirically-derived temperature coefficient being determined by a testing phase comprising:
identifying an identifier (ID) for a power stage (Pstage) of the integrated circuit;
performing, by a testing system, an iterative process for thermal coefficient tuning, which records temperature and an Iout matrix;
empirically capturing sample values as an integrated circuit die temperature of the VR module continues to rise across an operating temperature range of the VR module;
sampling, by the testing system, output current (Iout);
forming an array based on defined temperature points; and
in response to completion of the iterative process, generating, by the testing system, a nonlinear thermal coefficient, current offset curve by performing one of: (i) calculating piecewise linear values to extrapolate between sampled values stored within an empirical database; or (ii) performing high-order polynomial curve fitting to extrapolate between the sampled values within the empirical database, wherein the empirical database is processed to create a look-up table for temperature coupling coefficients that provides fine-tuned temperature compensation for Imon across a VR operation range;

determining a temperature-compensated Imon value based at least in part on the Imon value and the temperature value; and
controlling a level of the voltage-regulated power at least in part based on the temperature-compensated Imon value determined at least in part by the empirically-derived temperature coefficient.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
determining an identifier for a selected type of voltage regulator module characterized by a particular nonlinear temperature coefficient; and
determining the temperature-compensated Imon value based at least in part on the identifier.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein:
the current sensor comprises an inductor Direct Current Resistance (DCR) sense circuit; and
the temperature sensor comprises a thermistor that detects the temperature value

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Luo Shiguo
• Zhang Kejiu
• Wu Feng-Yu

Classifications

• Y02D10/172

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y02D10/16

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• G06F1/206

  comprising thermal management · CPC title

• G06F1/3206

  Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality · CPC title

• G06F1/3296 Primary

  by lowering the supply or operating voltage · CPC title