Miscellaneous active electrical nonlinear devices – circuits – and – Specific identifiable device – circuit – or system – With specific source of supply or bias voltage
Reexamination Certificate
2002-07-09
2003-11-25
Zweizig, Jeffrey (Department: 2816)
Miscellaneous active electrical nonlinear devices, circuits, and
Specific identifiable device, circuit, or system
With specific source of supply or bias voltage
Reexamination Certificate
active
06653891
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to voltage regulation.
BACKGROUND
An integrated circuit chip, such as a microprocessor, often requires multiple supply voltages for different parts of the chip circuit. This may reduce power consumption of components that can utilize a lower voltage than the other portions of the chip. A main supply voltage may be provided to the chip from an off-chip source, and an on-chip power converter may be used to generate additional supply voltages from the main supply voltage. When the main supply voltage from an off-chip source is the highest of the supply voltages used in the chip, a “series voltage regulator” may be used to obtain the other supply voltages that are lower than the main supply voltage.
FIG. 1
shows a conceptual model of a series voltage regulator
10
that includes a controllable series resistor R
1
connected between a main power supply (with voltage V
IN
) and an output node
12
(with voltage V
OUT
). For a constant load current I
LOAD
, the value of R
1
may be constant. If the load changes over time, a feedback circuit that includes a differential amplifier
14
connected to a reference voltage V
REF
may be used to dynamically adjust the value of R
1
in order to keep the output voltage V
OUT
substantially constant. The reference voltage V
REF
may be generated by using a band-gap reference circuit that produces a constant voltage independent of operating temperature and processing conditions. A second resistor R
2
may be connected between output node
12
and ground
13
to achieve better control of the output voltage V
OUT
. In a CMOS process, resistors R
1
and R
2
may be implemented using MOSFET devices.
REFERENCES:
patent: 6441680 (2002-08-01), Leung et al.
patent: 6542024 (2003-04-01), Somayajula
patent: 6552603 (2003-04-01), Ueda
Fish & Richardson P.C.
Intel Corporation
Zweizig Jeffrey
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