Method and system for controlling power of an IC chip based on reception of signal pulse from a neighboring chip

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8977869-B2
Application number	US-201113037462-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 1, 2011
Priority date	Mar 1, 2011
Publication date	Mar 10, 2015
Grant date	Mar 10, 2015

Abstract

While an IC chip is in idle mode with no power being supplied to the IC chip, the IC chip may be operable to detect a signal pulse received by the IC chip using energy associated with the signal pulse. The IC chip may be operable to control a control signal for a power switch using the energy associated with the signal pulse. The power switch may allow power to be provided to the IC chip based on the control signal. The IC chip may comprise a pulse detector, a latch circuit and an ON/OFF logic circuit within the IC chip. While the IC chip is fully powered and communication with a partner chip is finished, the IC chip may be operable to control the control signal to turn off the power switch for powering down the IC chip based on a turn-off signal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for controlling power of an integrated circuit (IC) chip that includes a pulse detector, a latch circuit, and an ON/OFF logic circuit, the method comprising:
detecting, by the pulse detector, a signal pulse generated by a partner chip while the IC chip is in an idle mode;
amplifying, by the pulse detector, the detected signal pulse by level shifting with a DC bias voltage;
generating, by the pulse detector, a latch signal to turn on the latch ci…

Assignees

• Wang Jingguang
• Tam Derek
• Berman Mark
• Fallahi Siavash
• Broadcom Corp

Inventors

• Wang Jingguang
• Tam Derek
• Berman Mark
• Fallahi Siavash

Classifications

• G06F1/3206 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic