Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F1/00—Details not covered by groups G06F3/00 - G06F13/00 and G06F21/00
  • G06F1/26—Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F1/00—Details not covered by groups G06F3/00 - G06F13/00 and G06F21/00
  • G06F1/26—Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof
  • G06F1/28—Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F1/00—Details not covered by groups G06F3/00 - G06F13/00 and G06F21/00
  • G06F1/26—Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof
  • G06F1/32—Means for saving power
  • G06F1/3203—Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
  • G06F1/3206—Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
  • G06F1/3212—Monitoring battery levels, e.g. power saving mode being initiated when battery voltage goes below a certain level
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H02—GENERATION; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER
  • H02J—ELECTRIC POWER NETWORKS; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTING ELECTRIC POWER; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY
  • H02J7/00—Circuit arrangements for charging or discharging batteries or for supplying loads from batteries
  • H02J7/855—Circuit arrangements for charging or discharging batteries or for supplying loads from batteries with circuits adapted for supplying loads from the battery
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H02—GENERATION; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER
  • H02J—ELECTRIC POWER NETWORKS; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTING ELECTRIC POWER; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY
  • H02J7/00—Circuit arrangements for charging or discharging batteries or for supplying loads from batteries
  • H02J7/90—Regulation of charging or discharging current or voltage
  • H02J7/933—Regulation of charging or discharging current or voltage the cycle being controlled or terminated in response to electric parameters

Definitions

• Batteries for computing devices may be selected based on various factors. Battery dimensions may impact a size of the computing device. A battery capacity may impact battery life or a runtime between charging of the battery. A total peak power envelope of the battery may impact an available power that the battery provides to the computing device. Further, a relative state-of- charge (RSOC) of the battery may decrease over a lifetime of the battery. A decrease in the RSOC may decrease the available peak power envelope of the battery.
• RSOC relative state-of- charge
• Examples are disclosed that relate to controlling an electrical power flowing from a battery on a computing device.
• One example provides a power management system for a computing device having a battery configured to power a first processing unit and a second processing unit.
• the power management system comprises a controller.
• the controller is configured to receive a RSOC of the battery.
• the controller further is configured to compute a first current limit value and a second current limit value based at least on the RSOC.
• the power management system further comprises a first power channel including a first first-stage regulator having a current limiter.
• the current limiter is configured to dynamically limit, to the first current value, a first current flowing from the battery to the first processing unit.
• the power management system further comprises a second power channel including a second first-stage regulator having a current limiter.
• the current limiter is configured to dynamically limit, to the second current limit value, a second current flowing from the battery to the second processing unit.
• FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an example computing device having a power management system.
• FIG. 2 schematically shows an example timing diagram of a first-stage output voltage.
• FIG. 3 schematically shows an example timing diagram of a battery output voltage for a battery of the computing device of FIG. 1.
• FIG. 4 schematically shows an example timing diagram illustrating a voltage droop count on a battery output voltage of the computing device of FIG. 1.
• FIG. 5 schematically shows an example timing diagram illustrating an exponentially weighted moving average of a battery output voltage of the computing device of FIG. 1.
• FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate a flow diagram of an example method for controlling an electrical power flowing from a battery on a computing device.
• FIG. 7 shows a block diagram of an example computing system that can be used as the computing device in FIG. 1.
• batteries for computing devices may be selected on various factors.
• One factor is battery capacity.
• a larger battery capacity may power a computing device for a longer period of time before being recharged than a smaller battery capacity.
• a computing device having a 2S battery, with more watt-hours, instead of a 3S battery, with less watt-hours may power a computing device for a longer period of time before being recharged.
• an available total peak power envelope across different RSOC values of the battery may decrease over a lifetime of the battery and thus, a peak power envelope of the battery may provide less available power as the battery ages.
• a peak power demand of the computing device may rise over the available power.
• processing units on the computing device may increase the peak power demand while processing heavy tasks.
• heavy processing tasks include gaming, graphics, and/or heavy multi-tasking scenarios.
• Increasing the peak power demand over the available power may result in a brown-out scenario in the computing device.
• the brown-out scenario may shut down the computing device catastrophically and thus may damage the processing units.
• the processor-hot assertion may perform hard throttling of the processing units.
• the hard throttling may include significantly lowering a switching frequency of the processing unit.
• Significantly lowering the switching frequency of the processing units may drastically impact a performance of the computing device.
• significantly lowering the switching frequency may impact a frames per second of a graphics program and as such, may be undesirable for a user of the computing device.
• Such a conservative brown-out suppression may cause a performance degradation of the processing units and functionality of the computing device.
• each processing unit may increase the power demand at different times, predicting a peak power demand at the battery of the computing device may be difficult.
• a power management system for a computing device having a battery configured to power a processing unit.
• the power management system comprises a controller and a power channel that controls a power flowing from the battery to the processing unit.
• the controller is configured to receive a RSOC of the battery and compute a current limit value based at least on the RSOC.
• the power channel includes a first-stage regulator including a current limiter configured to dynamically limit, to the current limit value, a current flowing from the battery to the processing unit and resulting in a voltage droop on a first-stage output voltage.
• the power channel further includes a second-stage regulator configured to detect the voltage droop on the first-stage output voltage.
• the second-stage regulator is configured to lower a second-stage output voltage by an amount in response to the voltage droop on the first-stage output voltage meeting a droop threshold condition.
• the second-stage output voltage is configured to power the processing unit. When the second-stage output voltage is lowered, a power demand of the processing unit may be lowered. In such a manner, the power channel may help to protect the computing device from a brown-out scenario while impacting a performance of the processing unit less than a processor-hot assertion.
• the power management system can further include a second power channel including a first-stage regulator and a second stageregulator.
• a second-stage output voltage of the second power channel is configured to power a second processing unit. Such a configuration may help to reduce a power demand of the second processing unit.
• the controller further is configured to monitor a battery output voltage.
• the controller is configured to adjust a performance parameter of a processing unit in response to the battery output voltage meeting a battery droop threshold condition.
• processing unit may generally refer to a processor core, a group of processor cores, a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a neural processing unit (NPU), a communication processor (e.g., 5G baseband processor, wireless fidelity (WIFI) processor, etc.), and/or a memory controller.
• FIG. 1 shows an example computing device 100 that uses a power management system 102 for controlling electrical power flowing from a battery 104.
• Battery 104 powers a first processing unit 106, a second processing unit 108, a third processing unit 110, and a fourth processing unit 112 using power management system 102.
• power from battery 104 to first processing unit 106 flows through a first power channel 114.
• power from battery 104 to second processing unit 108, third processing unit 110, and fourth processing unit flows through a second power channel 116.
• Power management system 102 includes a controller 118.
• the depicted controller 118 includes an embedded micro-controller 120 and a system-on-a-chip (SoC) power software (SW) manager 122.
• Embedded micro-controller 120 is configured to receive a RSOC of battery 104.
• Embedded microcontroller further is configured to compute a first current limit value and a second current limit value based at least on the RSOC.
• embedded micro-controller 120 may dynamically recompute the first current limit value and the second current limit value based on various factors such as aging, battery impedance, power delivery path impedance from the battery to a printed circuit board, etc.
• the first current limit value and the second current limit value may be adjusted based at least on a change in RSOC.
• a total battery current of 80A (amperes) may be available at a first RSOC and embedded micro-controller 120 computes a first current limit value of 50A and a second current limit value of 30A.
• embedded microcontroller 120 recomputes the first current limit value to a value of 10A and the second current limit value to a value of 50A.
• a higher priority processing unit may receive a larger portion of the total battery current at the second RSOC than a lower priority processing unit.
• computing the first current limit value and the second current limit value may be based at least on a battery impedance table at RSOC and a battery output voltage. In other examples, the first current limit value and the second current limit value may be determined in any other suitable manner.
• SoC power SW manager 122 monitors a battery output voltage. SoC power SW manager 122 may adjust one or more performance parameters of one or more of first processing unit 106, second processing unit 108, third processing unit 110, and fourth processing unit 112 in response to the battery output voltage meeting a battery droop threshold condition, as discussed below. Examples of the performance parameters include a switching frequency, a total power capping, a core power capping, a burst mode, and any other suitable processing unit performance parameter. Adjusting such performance parameters may help to lower a power demand of a processing unit.
• controller 118 may alternately or additionally include other components not illustrated.
• Dynamically limiting the second current may result in a voltage droop on a second first-stage output voltage 140.
• a second second-stage regulator 142 and a third second-stage regulator 144 monitor second first-stage output voltage 140 for a voltage droop.
• Second second-stage regulator 142 is configured to lower a second second-stage output voltage 146 by an amount in response to second first-stage output voltage 140 meeting the first droop threshold condition.
• Second second-stage output voltage 146 powers second processing unit 108. In such a manner, a power demand of second processing unit 108 is reduced in response to the second current being over the second current limit value. Further, the power demand of second processing unit 108 may not be reduced in response to the second current being under the second current limit value.
• second battery output voltage 304 after using the power management system droops below second threshold 306 for a shorter duration, as indicated at 316 and 318, and along second threshold comparator 320. As shown, second battery output voltage 304 droops less than first battery output voltage 302. Further, second battery output voltage 304 does not droop below processor-hot threshold 312 as indicated along processor-hot comparator 322. In such a manner, the power management system may help to reduce a number of processor- hot assertions.
• Timing diagram 300 is intended to be illustrative and any other suitable timing diagrams may be used.
• Method 600 further includes, at 606, determining a second current limit value based at least on the available power peak envelope.
• the first and second current limit value may be less than the total current of the available peak power envelope.
• Method 600 includes, at 608, limiting, to the current limit value, a current flowing from the battery to a processing unit using a current limiter of a first-stage regulator and resulting in a voltage droop on a first-stage output voltage. Such a configuration may help to reduce a power demand of the processing unit.
• Method 600 further includes, at 610, limiting, to the second current limit value, a second current flowing from the battery to a second processing unit using a current limiter of a second first-stage regulator and resulting in a voltage droop on a second first-stage output voltage in response to the second current being over the second current limit value. Such a configuration may help to reduce a power demand of the second processing unit.
• Method 600 further includes detecting the voltage droop on the first-stage output voltage using a second-stage regulator at 612, and detecting the voltage droop on the second first-stage output voltage using a second second-stage regulator at 614.
• Method 600 includes, at 616, lowering a second-stage output voltage by an amount in response to the voltage droop on the first-stage output voltage meeting a droop threshold condition. The amount may be a percentage of the second-stage output voltage, a voltage value, or any other suitable amount.
• method 600 includes lowering the second-stage output voltage by the amount for a duration of time and then raising the second-stage output voltage by the amount after the duration of time, as indicated at 618.
• a power demand of processing unit may be reduced and may help to reduce a performance impact of the processing unit compared to a processor-hot assertion.
• method 600 includes, at 620, lowering a second second-stage output voltage in response to the voltage droop on the second first-stage output voltage meeting the droop threshold condition. Such a configuration may help to reduce a power demand of the second processing unit.
• method 600 includes, at 622, powering the processing unit using the second-stage output voltage.
• the power management system may help to reduce a power demand of the processing unit and while helping to reduce an occurrence of a processor-hot assertion.
• method 600 may omit 606, 610, 614, and/or 620.
• method 600 may continue, at 624, to include monitoring a battery output voltage, and adjusting a performance parameter of the processing unit in response to the battery output voltage meeting a battery droop threshold condition. Adjusting the performance parameter includes lowering an operational frequency of the processing unit, as indicated at 626. In other examples, other suitable performance parameters may be adjusted. Method 600 further includes, at 628, counting a number of battery voltage droop events in a time period and determining when the battery droop threshold condition is met based at least on the number of battery voltage droop events counted.
• method 600 includes, at 630, determining an exponentially weighted moving average of threshold comparator output pulses and determining when the battery droop threshold condition is met based at least on the exponentially weighted moving average determined.
• the power management system may further control an electrical power flowing from the battery on the computing device and help to reduce an occurrence of the processor-hot assertion.
• method 600 includes, at 632, resetting the performance parameter of the processing unit in response to a power demand of the computing device meeting a system power condition.
• the power demand may comprise a total system power, an average total system power, or any other suitable power metric.
• resetting the performance parameter may comprise setting the performance parameter to a value before adjusting the performance parameter.
• method 600 includes, at 634, determining the system power condition is met in response to the computing device being connected to a charger and/or the RSOC of the battery is increased using a wireless charger. Such a configuration may help to increase the available peak power envelope of the battery. Further, the increase in the available peak power envelope may help to reduce a duration of time when the processing unit operates using the performance parameter adjusted. Alternatively or additionally, method 600 includes, at 636, determining the system power condition is met in response to the power demand of the computing device being reduced for a duration of time.
• the switching frequency of the processor may be reduced for around one minute and during the around one minute the power demand of the processing unit may be reduced. In such a configuration, a likelihood of a brown-out scenario on the processing unit is reduced. Further, after the around one minute, the switching frequency may be reset. Such a configuration helps to reduce a performance impact of the processing unit while reducing brown-out conditions compared to a processor-hot assertion.
• method 600 returns to 624. In other examples, method 600 may omit 634 and/or 636.
• FIG. 7 schematically shows a non-limiting embodiment of a computing system 700 that can enact one or more of the methods and processes described above.
• Computing system 700 is shown in simplified form.
• Computing system 700 may embody the computing device 100 described above and illustrated in FIG. 1.
• Computing system 700 may take the form of one or more personal computers, server computers, tablet computers, home-entertainment computers, network computing devices, gaming devices, mobile computing devices, mobile communication devices (e.g., smart phone), and/or other computing devices, and wearable computing devices such as smart wristwatches and head mounted augmented reality devices.
• Computing device 100 is an example of computing system 700.
• Volatile memory 704 may include physical devices that include random access memory. Volatile memory 704 is typically utilized by logic processor 702 to temporarily store information during processing of software instructions. It will be appreciated that volatile memory 704 typically does not continue to store instructions when power is cut to the volatile memory 704.
• logic processor 702, volatile memory 704, and non-volatile storage device 706 may be integrated together into one or more hardware-logic components.
• Such hardware-logic components may include field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), program- and applicationspecific integrated circuits (PASIC / ASICs), program- and application-specific standard products (PSSP / ASSPs), system-on-a-chip (SOC), and complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs), for example.
• FPGAs field-programmable gate arrays
• PASIC / ASICs program- and applicationspecific integrated circuits
• PSSP / ASSPs program- and application-specific standard products
• SOC system-on-a-chip
• CPLDs complex programmable logic devices
• a power management system for a computing device having a battery configured to power a first processing unit and a second processing unit comprising a controller configured to receive a relative state-of-charge of the battery, and compute a first current limit value and a second current limit value based at least on the relative state-of-charge, a first power channel including a first first-stage regulator having a current limiter configured to dynamically limit, to the first current limit value, a first current flowing from the battery to the first processing unit, and a second power channel including a second first-stage regulator having a current limiter configured to dynamically limit, to the second current limit value, a second current flowing from the battery to the second processing unit.
• the first first-stage regulator of the first power channel alternatively or additionally is a first-stage regulator configured to dynamically limit the first current and resulting in a voltage droop on a first-stage output voltage
• the first power channel alternatively or additionally includes a second-stage regulator configured to detect the voltage droop on the first-stage output voltage and lower a second-stage output voltage by an amount in response to the voltage droop meeting a droop threshold condition, the second-stage output voltage configured to power the first processing unit.
• the second-stage regulator alternatively or additionally is configured to lower the second-stage output voltage by the amount for a duration of time and then raise the second-stage output voltage by the amount after the duration of time in response to the voltage droop on the first-stage output voltage meeting the droop threshold condition.
• the second-stage regulator alternatively or additionally is implemented in a power management integrated circuit (PMIC).
• the controller alternatively or additionally is configured to monitor a battery output voltage and adjust a performance parameter of the processing unit in response to the battery output voltage meeting a battery droop threshold condition.
• a power management system for a computing device having a battery configured to power a processing unit, comprising a controller configured to receive a relative state-of-charge of the battery, and compute a current limit value based at least on the relative state- of-charge, a power channel including a first-stage regulator including a current limiter configured to dynamically limit, to the current limit value, a current flowing from the battery to the processing unit and resulting in a voltage droop on a first-stage output voltage, and a second-stage regulator configured to detect the voltage droop on the first-stage output voltage and lower a second-stage output voltage by an amount in response to the voltage droop meeting a droop threshold condition, the second-stage output voltage configured to power the processing unit.
• the power channel alternatively or additionally includes a second second-stage regulator configured to detect the voltage droop on the first-stage output voltage and lower a second second-stage output voltage by the amount in response to the voltage droop on the first-stage output voltage meeting the droop threshold condition.
• the power channel is a first power channel
• the processing unit is a first processing unit
• the current limit value is a first current limit value
• the current is a first current
• the controller alternatively or additionally is configured to compute a second current limit value based at least on the relative state-of-charge received, and comprising a second power channel including a second first-stage regulator including a current limiter configured to dynamically limit, to the second current limit value, a second current flowing from the battery to a second processing unit and resulting in a voltage droop on a second first- stage output voltage, and a second second-stage regulator configured to detect the voltage droop on the second first-stage output voltage and lower a second second-stage output voltage by an amount in response to the voltage droop on the second first-stage output voltage meeting a droop threshold condition, the second second-stage output voltage configured to power the second processing unit.
• the controller alternatively or additionally is configured to monitor a battery output voltage and adjust a performance parameter
• Another example provides a method for controlling an electrical power flowing from a battery on a computing device, the method comprising estimating an available peak power envelope of the battery based at least on a relative state-of-charge of the battery, determining a current limit value based at least on the available peak power envelope, limiting, to the current limit value, a current flowing from the battery to a processing unit using a current limiter of a first-stage regulator and resulting in a voltage droop on a first-stage output voltage, detecting the voltage droop on the first- stage output voltage using a second-stage regulator, lowering a second-stage output voltage by an amount in response to the voltage droop on the first-stage output voltage meeting a droop threshold condition, and powering the processing unit using the second-stage output voltage.
• lowering the second-stage output voltage in response to the voltage droop on the first- stage output voltage meeting the droop threshold condition alternatively or additionally includes lowering the second-stage output voltage by the amount for a duration of time and then raising the second-stage output voltage by the amount after the duration of time.
• the method alternatively or additionally comprises monitoring a battery output voltage, adjusting a performance parameter of the processing unit in response to the battery output voltage meeting a battery droop threshold condition, and resetting the performance parameter of the processing unit in response to a power demand of the computing device meeting a system power condition.
• adjusting the performance parameter alternatively or additionally includes lowering an operational frequency of the processing unit.
• the method alternatively or additionally comprises counting a number of battery voltage droop events in a time period and determining when the battery droop threshold condition is met based at least on the number of battery voltage droop events counted. In some such examples, the method alternatively or additionally comprises determining an exponentially weighted moving average of threshold comparator output pulses and determining when the battery droop threshold condition is met based at least on the exponentially weighted moving average determined.
• the method alternatively or additionally comprises determining a second current limit value based at least on the available peak power envelope, limiting, to the second current limit value, a second current flowing from the battery to a second processing unit using a current limiter of a second first-stage regulator and resulting in a voltage droop on a second first-stage output voltage in response to the second current being over the second current limit value, detecting the voltage droop on the second first-stage output voltage using a second second-stage regulator, and lowering a second second-stage output voltage in response to the voltage droop on the second first-stage output voltage meeting the droop threshold condition.

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• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Power Engineering (AREA)
• Charge And Discharge Circuits For Batteries Or The Like (AREA)
• Secondary Cells (AREA)

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• 2023
  • 2023-07-13 WO PCT/US2023/027576 patent/WO2024039467A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2023-07-13 EP EP23754478.8A patent/EP4573431A1/de active Pending

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