Power consumption monitoring device for a power source

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9500714-B2
Application number	US-201314040346-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 27, 2013
Priority date	Sep 27, 2013
Publication date	Nov 22, 2016
Grant date	Nov 22, 2016

Abstract

Examples are disclosed for an integrated circuit (IC) device coupled to a battery-operated power supply unit, such as an IC in a mobile computing device or wireless phone, to accurately determine energy usage drawn from the power supply unit under rapidly dynamic circumstances. A current sense signal of a power line from the power supply unit is digitized. The digitized current sense is added to an accumulator at a rate that is approximately proportional to a voltage of the power line from the power supply unit. The accumulator is then outputted and scaled to units relevant to energy measurements. The energy measurement is used to estimate remaining battery life. Triggering the digitization of the current sense signal may be by use of a pulse generation circuit, or by use of an overflow indicator of an accumulator for a digitized voltage sense signal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a current sensor to provide a first voltage that indicates a current delivered by an energy source;
a first analog to digital converter (ADC) operably coupled to the current sensor, the ADC to digitize the first voltage;
a voltage sensor to provide a second voltage that indicates voltage measurement of a voltage associated with the current delivered by the energy source;
a first accumulator operably coupled to the first ADC and the voltage sensor, the first accumulator to accumulate the digitized first voltage based upon the second voltage to represent a measurement of energy;
a second ADC operably coupled to the voltage sensor to digitize the second voltage; and
a second accumulator operably coupled to the second ADC, the second accumulator to accumulate the digitized second voltages, the first accumulator operably coupled to the second accumulator and accumulate the digitized first voltage based on an overflow indicator provided by the second accumulator.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , the second ADC to digitize the second voltage at a periodic rate from about 1.0 GHz to about 5.0 GHz.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , the second ADC to digitize the second voltage at a periodic rate that is responsive to an operating mode of the apparatus.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , comprising a pulse generator operably coupled to the voltage sensor and the first accumulator, the pulse generator to produce a periodic signal having a repetition rate that increases with an increase in the second voltage, the first accumulator to accumulate the digitized first voltage based upon the periodic signal.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , the pulse generator a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO).

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the measurement of energy is to estimate a remaining battery life.

7. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to:
receive, from a current sensor, a first indicator of a current delivered by a power supply;
receive, from a voltage sensor, a second indicator of a voltage associated with the current delivered by the power supply;
send a first control signal to a first analog to digital converter (ADC) to trigger digitization of a measurement of the first indicator to produce a digitized first indicator measurement;
send a second control signal to a first accumulator to trigger an accumulation of the digitized first indicator measurement to produce an accumulated first indicator measurement to represent a measurement of energy, the second control signal based in part on the second indicator;
send a third control signal to a second ADC to trigger digitization of a measurement of the second indicator; and
send a fourth control signal to a second accumulator to trigger an accumulation of the digitized measurements of the second indicator and to provide an overflow indicator, the second control signal based in part on the overflow indicator.

8. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to send the first control signal to trigger digitization at a periodic rate between about 1.0 GHz to about 5.0 GHz.

9. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to:
send a third control signal to a second ADC to trigger digitization of a measurement of the second indicator; and
send a fourth control signal to a second accumulator to trigger an accumulation of the digitized measurements of the second indicator and to provide an overflow indicator, the second control signal based in part on the overflow indicator.

10. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to send a control signal to a second ADC to trigger digitization of a measurement of the second indicator based on a periodic signal received from a pulse generator, the pulse generator to produce the periodic signal having a repetition rate that increases with an increase in the voltage associated with the current delivered by the power supply.

11. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , the pulse generator a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO).

12. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the measurement of energy is to estimate a remaining battery life.

13. A system comprising:
a current sensor to provide a first voltage that indicates a current delivered by an energy source;
a processor to consume energy produced by the energy source;
a memory coupled to the processor, the memory configured to store data;
a voltage sensor to provide a second voltage that indicates voltage measurement of a voltage associated with the current delivered by the energy source;
a first analog-to-digital converter (ADC) operably coupled to the current sensor, the first ADC to digitize the first voltage and produce digitized first voltages;
a first accumulator operably coupled to the first ADC and the voltage sensor, the first accumulator to accumulate the digitized first voltage based in part upon the second voltage to represent a measurement of energy; and
a pulse generator operably coupled to the voltage sensor and the first accumulator, the pulse generator to produce a periodic signal having a repetition rate that increases with an increase in the second voltage, the first accumulator to accumulate the digitized first voltage based upon the periodic signal.

14. The system of claim 13 , comprising a second ADC operably coupled to the voltage sensor, the second ADC to digitize the second voltage and produce digitized second voltages.

15. The system of claim 14 , the second ADC to digitize at a periodic rate from about 1.0 GHz to about 5.0 GHz.

16. The system of claim 14 , the second ADC to digitize at a periodic rate that is responsive to an operating mode of the apparatus.

17. The system of claim 14 , comprising a second accumulator operably coupled to the second ADC, the second accumulator to accumulate the digitized measurements of the second voltage and to trigger accumulation in the first accumulator of the digitized first voltage based upon an overflow indicator provided by the second accumulator.

18. The system of claim 13 , the pulse generator to produce a periodic signal having a repetition rate that increases with an increase in the second voltage.

19. The system of claim 18 , the first accumulator digitized first voltage based upon the periodic signal.

20. The system of claim 13 , wherein the measurement of energy is to estimate a remaining battery life.

21. The system of claim 13 , the pulse generator a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO).

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Rotem Efraim
• Rosenzweig Nir
• Carlson Jeffrey A
• Lehwalder Philip R
• Shulman Nadav
• Rajwan Doron

Classifications

• G01R31/3842

  combining voltage and current measurements · CPC title

• G01R22/10

  using digital techniques · CPC title

• G01R21/133

  by using digital technique · CPC title

• G01R31/3648 Primary

  comprising digital calculation means, e.g. for performing an algorithm · CPC title