Optimizing bias points for a semiconductor device

• US 9,176,558 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2009
• Issued: 11/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Incorporated
• Inventors: Cooley, Daniel J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Wesley
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chan, Richard
• Application Number:
  US12/568,823
• Publication Number:
  US 20110076980A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,226 Days
• Field of Search: 455/343.5, 455/334, 327/509
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2119/18 Manufacturability analysis or optimisation for manufacturability
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 1/30 Modifications of amplifiers to reduce influence of variations of temperature or supply voltage or other physical parameters in differential amplifiers H03F3/45479
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/447 the amplifier being protected to temperature influence
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/468 the temperature being sensed
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes determining environmental conditions associated with operation of a chip having multiple device types, accessing a table stored in the chip based on the determined environmental conditions, and dynamically operating the chip at a bias point accessed from the table based on the determined environmental conditions.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining a corner value for each of a plurality of device types of a semiconductor die based on operation of each of the device types and storing the corner value for each of the device types in a storage of the semiconductor die

determining environmental conditions at which the semiconductor die is operating using one or more sensors of the semiconductor die;

using a controller of the semiconductor die to access a table in the storage based on the determined environmental conditions, the table including a set of bias points, to determine a bias point for each of a plurality of blocks based on the environmental conditions and heuristics for the semiconductor die, wherein the table is partitioned into a plurality of partitions each associated with at least one of the blocks and including a plurality of bias points each corresponding to a set of environmental conditions and based on the determined corner value of each of the plurality of device types; and

dynamically operating the semiconductor die at a bias point accessed from the table based on the determined environmental conditions.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the corner value for each of a plurality of transistor configurations, wherein the transistors correspond to a first device type of the plurality of device types.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining the corner value for each of a plurality of resistor configurations, wherein the resistors correspond to a second device type of the plurality of device types.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining the corner value for each of a plurality of capacitor configurations, wherein the capacitors correspond to a third device type of the plurality of device types.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the semiconductor die is a mixed signal radio receiver including an analog front end, a digital signal processor, a microcontroller, and a non-volatile storage to store the corner values and the table.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the microcontroller is to dynamically determine the bias point when a user changes a channel.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising delaying a bias control logic to cause the dynamic operation until an available window of operation of the semiconductor die.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing the table using a combination of the environmental conditions.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically operating the semiconductor die at the bias point comprises operating the semiconductor die to ensure passing performance of a specification while minimizing power consumption.

7. An apparatus comprising:

a transistor sensor including a plurality of different transistor types to be switchably coupled to a first test line to receive a test signal and to output a test output to enable detection of a corner of each of the different transistors types;

a resistor sensor including a plurality of different resistor types to be switchably coupled to a second test line to receive a test signal and to output a test output to enable detection of a corner of each of the different resistor types;

a capacitor sensor including a plurality of different capacitor types to be switchably coupled to a third test line to receive a test signal and to output a test output to enable detection of a corner of each of the different capacitor types;

a temperature sensor to generate a value representative of a temperature at which the apparatus is operating;

a voltage sensor to generate an output representative of a voltage of a power source coupled to the apparatus;

an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) switchably coupled to each of the sensors to digitize a corresponding output; and

a microcontroller to control switching of the sensors to the ADC, receive the corresponding digitized outputs, determine a corner for each of the different transistor types, the resistor types and the capacitor types, store each of the determined corners in a first storage, determine a set of bias points for each of a plurality of blocks of the apparatus based on the determined corners and each for a set of environmental conditions, and store the set of bias points in a second storage of the apparatus.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the microcontroller is to dynamically select a bias point at which to operate a first block of the apparatus from the set of bias points corresponding to the block and stored in the second storage, based on a combination of environmental conditions of the apparatus.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the microcontroller is to dynamically select the bias point to reduce power consumption of the apparatus.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the ADC is an auxiliary ADC not associated with a signal path of the apparatus.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the apparatus comprises a radio tuner including the signal path to receive and process a radio frequency (RF) signal to obtain an audio output signal.

19. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the combination of environmental conditions includes a current temperature of the apparatus and a current voltage of the power source.

12. A system comprising:

a receiver formed on a single semiconductor die, the receiver including a signal path having an analog front end to receive and process a radio frequency (RF) signal to provide a digital output and a digital signal processor (DSP) to receive the digital output and to process the digital output to generate a content signal, wherein the receiver includes;

at least one process sensor to generate an output indicative of process corner information of a plurality of device types of the semiconductor die;

at least one temperature sensor to generate an output indicative of a temperature condition of the semiconductor die;

an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) separate from an ADC of the signal path switchably coupled to each of the sensors to digitize a corresponding output;

a microcontroller coupled to the ADC to control switching of the sensors to the ADC, receive the corresponding digitized outputs, determine the process corner information for each of the plurality of device types, and determine a set of bias points for each of a plurality of blocks of the receiver based on the process corner information, each of the set of bias points including a plurality of bias points each associated with a temperature condition at which the receiver may operate;

a non-volatile storage to store the set of bias points for each of the plurality of blocks of the receiver.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the microcontroller is to dynamically select a bias point at which to operate a first block of the receiver from the set of bias points corresponding to the first block and stored in the non-volatile storage, based on a current temperature of the receiver and a battery voltage.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the controller is to dynamically select the bias point to reduce power consumption of the receiver.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the ADC is an auxiliary ADC not associated with the signal path.