Power delivery network degradation detection in a computing device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12509099-B2
Application number	US-202318338576-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 21, 2023
Priority date	Jun 21, 2023
Publication date	Dec 30, 2025
Grant date	Dec 30, 2025

Abstract

Degradation of a power delivery network (PDN) in a computing device may be detected as part of a self-test during booting of the computing device or a device subsystem. The computing device may be an automotive vehicle control system. A clock signal provided to logic circuitry supplied by the PDN may be modulated, and the modulation frequency may be varied over a range. Voltage droop values in the logic circuitry may be measured in response to the modulation frequencies over the range. Impedance values may be determined by determining an odd harmonic of each of the voltage droop values. The impedance values may be compared with thresholds, and an alert or other indication may be issued if one or more of the impedance values exceeds a threshold.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for detecting automotive vehicle control system-on-a-chip (SoC) power delivery network degradation, comprising:
modulating, by clock modulation circuitry of the (SoC), a clock signal provided to logic circuitry of the SoC supplied by the SoC power delivery network, including gating the clock signal alternately on and off at a duty cycle of a modulation signal, the modulation signal having a modulation frequency; varying, by test control circuitry of the SoC, the modulation frequency over a range; measuring, by voltage measurement circuitry, a plurality of voltage droop values of a signal in the logic circuitry in response to each of a corresponding plurality of modulation frequencies in the range; determining, by the test control circuitry, a plurality of impedance values, including determining a value of an odd harmonic of each of the plurality of voltage droop values; comparing, by the test control circuitry, each of the plurality of impedance values with a corresponding threshold; and providing, by the test control circuitry, an indication when at least one of the impedance values exceeds the corresponding threshold; wherein the method is performed when booting the SoC when the automotive vehicle is readied for operation.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the value of the odd harmonic of each of the plurality of voltage droop values comprises performing a Fast Fourier Transform on each of the plurality of voltage droop values.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is performed during mission-mode operation of a system having the logic circuitry.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising alerting a vehicle operator based on the indication.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising, based on the indication, entering the vehicle into a fail-safe mode.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein measuring the plurality of voltage droop values of a signal comprises measuring, by a plurality of voltage sensors, a corresponding plurality of voltage values, and determining an average of the plurality of voltage values.

7 . A system for detecting automotive vehicle control system-on-a-chip (SoC) power delivery network degradation, comprising:
at least one voltage sensor in the SoC coupled to a signal path in logic circuitry of the SoC powered by the SoC power delivery network; clock modulation circuitry in the SoC configured to modulate a clock signal and provide a modulated clock signal to the logic circuitry in response to a modulation signal, including being configured to gate the clock signal alternately on and off at a duty cycle of the modulation signal; and test control circuitry in the SoC configured to, when booting the SoC when the automotive vehicle is readied for operation: provide the modulation signal to the clock modulation circuitry; vary a modulation frequency of the modulation signal over a range; receive a plurality of voltage droop values from the at least one voltage sensor in response to each of a corresponding plurality of modulation frequencies in the range; determine a plurality of impedance values, including being configured to determine a value of an odd harmonic of each of the plurality of voltage droop values; compare each of the plurality of impedance values with a corresponding threshold; and provide an indication when at least one of the impedance values exceeds the corresponding threshold.

8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the test control circuitry is configured to determine the value of the odd harmonic of each of the plurality of voltage droop values by performing a Fast Fourier Transform on each of the plurality of voltage droop values.

9 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the test control circuitry is configured to operate during mission-mode operation of a system having the logic circuitry.

10 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the test control circuitry is further configured to control alerting a vehicle operator based on the indication.

11 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the test control circuitry is further configured to control entering the vehicle into a fail-safe mode based on the indication.

12 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the test control circuitry is configured to determine an average of a plurality of voltage values received from a plurality of voltage sensors.

13 . An apparatus for detecting automotive vehicle control system-on-a-chip (SoC) power delivery network degradation, comprising:
means for, when booting the SoC when an automotive vehicle is readied for operation, modulating a clock signal provided to logic circuitry supplied by the SoC power delivery network, including means for gating the clock signal alternately on and off at a duty cycle of a modulation signal, the modulation signal having a modulation frequency; means for, when booting the SoC when the automotive vehicle is readied for operation, varying the modulation frequency over a range; means for, when booting the SoC when the automotive vehicle is readied for operation, measuring a plurality of voltage droop values of a signal in the logic circuitry in response to each of a corresponding plurality of modulation frequencies in the range; means for, when booting the SoC when the automotive vehicle is readied for operation, determining a plurality of impedance values, including determining a value of an odd harmonic of each of the plurality of voltage droop values; means for, when booting the automotive SoC when the automotive vehicle is readied for operation, comparing each of the plurality of impedance values with a corresponding threshold; and means for, when booting the SoC when the automotive vehicle is readied for operation, providing an indication when at least one of the impedance values exceeds the corresponding threshold.

14 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the means for determining the value of the odd harmonic of each of the plurality of voltage droop values comprises means for performing a Fast Fourier Transform on each of the plurality of voltage droop values.

15 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the apparatus operates during mission-mode operation of a system having the logic circuitry.

16 . The apparatus of claim 13 , further comprising means for alerting a vehicle operator based on the indication.

17 . The apparatus of claim 13 , further comprising means for entering the vehicle into a fail-safe mode based on the indication.

18 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the means for measuring the plurality of voltage droop values of a signal comprises means for determining an average of a plurality of measured voltage values.

19 . A computer-readable medium for detecting automotive vehicle control system-on-a-chip (SoC) power delivery network degradation, the computer-readable medium comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon in computer-executable form, the instructions when executed by a processing system of the SoC configuring the processing system to, when booting the SoC when an automotive vehicle is readied for operation:
control modulation of a clock signal provided to logic circuitry of the SoC powered by the SoC power delivery network using a modulation signal, including configuring the processing system to control gating the clock signal alternately on and off at a duty cycle of the modulation signal, and to vary a frequency of modulation of the clock signal over a range; receive a plurality of voltage droop values from a voltage se

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Dibbad Vijayakumar Ashok
• Gemar Jeffrey
• Pandey Shree Krishna

Classifications

• B60W2050/146

  Display means · CPC title

• B60W2050/143

  Alarm means · CPC title

• B60W50/14

  Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention · CPC title

• B60W50/035

  Bringing the control units into a predefined state, e.g. giving priority to particular actuators · CPC title

• G01R31/31721

  Power aspects, e.g. power supplies for test circuits, power saving during test (for scan test G01R31/318575) · CPC title