Voltage regulator having self-test mode
US11070125B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 29, 2019 |
| Grant date | Jul 20, 2021 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 29, 2039 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH02M3/1586
- WIPO fieldElectrical machinery, apparatus, energy
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A fault-tolerant multiphase voltage regulator includes a plurality of power stages, each of which is configured to deliver a phase current to a processor, and a controller. The controller is configured to: control the plurality of power stages to regulate an output voltage provided to the processor; detect and disable a faulty power stage; generate a throttling signal to indicate that one or more of the power stages is faulty and disabled; communicate the throttling signal to the processor over a physical line running between the processor and the controller; and place the multiphase voltage regulator in a self-test mode in which the processor is operated at a known computational load and the controller operates each power stage independently to determine if any of the power stages is faulty under the known computational load. A corresponding method of operating a fault-tolerant power distribution system is also described.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.