System and method for dynamic monitoring of controller current consumption

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016261104-A1
Application number	US-201514637117-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 3, 2015
Priority date	Mar 3, 2015
Publication date	Sep 8, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods for monitoring a regulated voltage output for current consumption are disclosed. An analog component senses the current at the regulated voltage output and converts the sensed current into a digital representation, which is indicative of the sensed current. A digital component inputs and analyzes the digital representation to determine whether to generate an interrupt. The interrupt is indicative to an electronic device, which is using the regulated voltage, to modify its operation. For example, the digital component may analyze the digital representation by counting a number of system clock cycles during a part of the digital representation. The counted number of clock cycles may be compared with a threshold, which may be predetermined or dynamically selected, to determine whether to generate an interrupt. Thus, the sensed current from the regulated voltage output may be used to determine whether to modify operation of the electronic device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A monitoring device configured to monitor current consumption on an output of a voltage regulator, the voltage regulator configured to generate a regulated voltage for an electronic device, the monitoring device comprising:
an analog module configured to sense current on the output of the voltage regulator and to generate a digital representation of the sensed current; and a digital module configured to:
input the digital representation of the sensed current;
determine whether the digital representation is indicative of excessive current draw; and
in response to determining that the digital representation is indicative of excessive current draw, generate an interrupt, the interrupt indicative to a controller of the electronic device to reset or to modify operation of part or all of the electronic device.

2 . The monitoring device of claim 1 , wherein the digital module is configured to determine whether the digital representation is indicative of excessive current draw by:
analyzing the digital representation; and comparing the analysis of the digital representation to a threshold.

3 . The monitoring device of claim 2 , wherein at least part of the digital representation is inversely proportional to the sensed current.

4 . The monitoring device of claim 2 , wherein the analog module is configured to generate a series of pulses based on the sensed current; and
wherein a time period between two of the series of pulses is indicative of the sensed current.

5 . The monitoring device of claim 4 , wherein the electronic device comprises a clock;
wherein the digital module is configured to analyze the digital representation of the sensed current by counting a number of clock cycles of the clock between the two of the series of pulses; and wherein the digital module is configured to compare the analysis of the digital representation to a threshold by comparing the counted number of clock cycles to the threshold.

6 . The monitoring device of claim 5 , further comprising a threshold selection module configured to dynamically select the threshold.

7 . The monitoring device of claim 6 , wherein the threshold selection module is configured to select the threshold based on a current configuration of the electronic device.

8 . The monitoring device of claim 7 , wherein the electronic device comprises a plurality of components; and
wherein the threshold selection module is configured to select the threshold based on which of the plurality of components are currently operating.

9 . The monitoring device of claim 1 , wherein the interrupt is indicative to a controller of the electronic device to turn off part, but not all, of the electronic device.

10 . The monitoring device of claim 1 , wherein a component of the electronic device is configured to operate in a first state and a second state, wherein in the first state, the component operates at a first level of non-zero operation and in the second state, the component operates at a second level of non-zero operation, the first level of non-zero operation being different than the second level of non-zero operation; and
wherein the interrupt is indicative to a controller of the electronic device to modify operation of the component from the first level of non-zero operation to the second level of non-zero operation.

11 . A system on a chip comprising:
a voltage regulator including a regulated voltage output; a current sensing and digital conversion module configured to sense current on the regulated voltage output and to generate a digital representation of the sensed current; a digital representation analytical component configured to analyze the digital representation and to generate an interrupt; and a performance monitoring unit configured to input the interrupt and to modify operation of at least a part of the system in response to receipt of the interrupt.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the current sensing and digital conversion module is configured to generate a series of pulses based on the sensed current; and
wherein a time period between two of the series of pulses is indicative of the sensed current.

13 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the digital representation analytical component is configured to analyze the digital representation to determine whether the digital representation is indicative of excessive current draw and, in response to determining that the digital representation is indicative of excessive current draw, to generate the interrupt.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the digital representation analytical component is configured to determine whether the digital representation is indicative of excessive current draw by comparing the analysis of the digital representation to a threshold.

15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the threshold is dynamically determined.

16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the threshold is determined based on a current configuration of the system.

17 . A method for monitoring current consumption on an output of a voltage regulator, the voltage regulator configured to generate a regulated voltage for an electronic device, the method comprising:
sensing current on the output of the voltage regulator; generating, based at least in part on the sensed current, a digital representation of the current; analyzing the digital representation; comparing the analysis of the digital representation to a threshold; determining, based on comparing the analysis to the threshold, whether to generate an interrupt; and in response to determining to generate the interrupt, generating the interrupt, the interrupt indicative to modify operation of the electronic device.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein generating the digital representation of the current comprises generating a series of pulses based on the sensed current, wherein a time period between two of the series of pulses is indicative of the sensed current.

19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein analyzing the digital representation comprises counting a number of clock cycles of a system clock between the two of the series of pulses; and
wherein comparing the analysis of the digital representation to the threshold comprises comparing the number of clock cycles to the threshold.

20 . The method of claim 19 , further comprising dynamically determining the threshold.

21 . The method of claim 20 , wherein dynamically determining the threshold comprises:
determining a configuration of the electronic device; and selecting the threshold based on the current configuration.

22 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the electronic device comprises a plurality of components;
wherein determining the configuration of the electronic device comprises determining which of the plurality of components are currently operating; and wherein selecting the threshold based on the current configuration comprises selecting the threshold based on which of the plurality of components are currently operating.

23 . The method of claim 17 , where the interrupt is indicative to a controller of the electronic device to reset or to modify operation of part or all of the electronic device.

Assignees

• Sandisk Technologies Inc

Inventors

• Bass Simon
• Linkovsky Vitali
• Minz Leonid
• Tomashev Michael
• Baram Yair

Classifications

• H02H3/033

  with several disconnections in a preferential order, {e.g. following priority of the users, load repartition}(H02H3/06 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H02H3/0935

  the timing being determined by numerical means · CPC title

• G05F1/46 Primary

  wherein the variable actually regulated by the final control device is DC (G05F1/625 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H02H3/08 Primary

  responsive to excess current (responsive to abnormal temperature caused by excess current H02H5/04) · CPC title

• G06F1/28 Primary

  Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision · CPC title