Measuring power consumption of circuit component operating in run mode

• US 9,696,353 B2
• Filed: 07/29/2013
• Issued: 07/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Atmel Corporation (Microchip Technology Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Atmel Corporation (Microchip Technology Incorporated)
• Inventors: Hanssen, Ingar, Lamo, Jo Inge
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tung X
• Assistant Examiner(s): Alejnikov, Jr., Robert P
• Application Number:
  US13/953,140
• Publication Number:
  US 20150028898A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,436 Days
• Field of Search: 324691, 324705, 3247503, 32476201-7621, 32476401
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 21/06 by measuring current and voltage G01R21/08 - G01R21/133 take precedence

Abstract

A sense resistor is coupled between a power source and one or more power pins of an integrated circuit (IC) chip including a circuit component (e.g., a microcontroller unit (MCU)). An on-chip amplifier (e.g., a programmable gain amplifier or op-amp) amplifies the voltage drop over the sense resistor to a level that is within the dynamic range of an on-chip analog-to-digital converter (ADC). In some implementations, the measured signals can be time-stamped and stored in a trace buffer and aligned with other trace data using a front-end tool (e.g., a personal computer). In some implementations, circuitry is included for detecting and handling power consumption events associated with the circuit component. In some implementations, a program counter associated with the circuit component is synchronously sampled with the power consumption measurements and/or other data sources.

Claims

1. A method of measuring power consumption of an integrated circuit (IC) chip, the method comprising:

measuring a voltage drop across a resistor coupled to a power terminal of the IC chip located outside the IC chip and a system power source terminal located outside the IC chip, the power terminal for providing power from the system power source to components in the IC chip;

amplifying the voltage drop using an on-chip amplifier, the on-chip amplifier including a first input coupled to the power terminal and a second input coupled to the system power source terminal;

converting the amplified voltage drop to digital data using an on-chip analog-to -digital converter (ADC);

determining a time of measurement; and

storing the time of measurement and digital data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a power analysis application access to the stored digital data.

3. The method of claim 1, where the on-chip amplifier is a programmable gain amplifier (PGA).

4. The method of claim 3, where the PGA is programmed to provide a voltage level that is within the dynamic range of the ADC.

5. The method of claim 4, where the PGA is programmed with gain settings that were calibrated against a zero point.

6. The method of claim 1, where the IC chip is a microcontroller unit (MCU).

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding a fixed amount of current to the power terminal;

measuring the voltage drop across the resistor;

calculating coefficients of a formula; and

calculating power consumption of the IC chip using the formula.

8. The method of claim 7, where the formula is y=Ax+B, where x is the voltage drop, y is the current consumption, B is an offset correction and A is a gain factor.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sampling a program counter; and

synchronizing the sampled program counter with the digital data.

10. An integrated circuit (IC) chip comprising:

an amplifier, included in the IC chip, and configured for amplifying a voltage drop across a sense resistor coupled to a power terminal of the IC chip located outside the IC chip and a system power source terminal located outside the IC chip, the on-chip amplifier including a first input coupled to the power terminal and a second input coupled to the system power source terminal, the power terminal for providing power from the system power source to one or more components in the IC chip;

an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), in the IC chip, and configured for converting the amplified voltage drop to digital data; and

a trace buffer coupled to the ADC and configured for storing the digital data.

11. The circuit of claim 10, further comprising:

a power analysis tool coupled to the IC chip and configured to run a power analysis application that accesses the stored digital data.

12. The circuit of claim 10, where the amplifier is a programmable gain amplifier (PGA).

13. The circuit of claim 12, where the PGA is programmed to provide voltage levels within the dynamic range of the ADC.

14. The circuit of claim 13, where the PGA is programmed with gain settings that were calibrated against a zero point.

15. The circuit of claim 10, where the IC chip is a microcontroller unit (MCU).

16. The circuit of claim 10, further comprising:

a current generator configured for adding a fixed amount of current to the power terminal.

17. The circuit of claim 10, further comprising:

a program counter (PC) inside the IC chip; and

PC sampler configured for sampling the PC and synchronizing the sampled PC with the digital data.

18. An integrated circuit (IC) chip comprising:

an amplifier having a first input coupled to a power terminal of the IC chip for powering components of the IC chip, and a second input coupled a system power source terminal, the amplifier configured for amplifying a voltage drop across the power terminal and the system power source terminal;

an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), in the IC chip, and configured for converting the amplified voltage drop to digital data in response to a trigger signal;

a program counter (PC) operable to indicate a current location in a software program;

a delay circuit responsive to the trigger signal, the delay circuit configured to generate a latch signal by adjusting the trigger signal according to an ADC conversion time; and

a PC latch circuit coupled to the delay circuit, the PC latch circuit configured to sample the PC counter in response to the latch signal.

19. The circuit of claim 18, further comprising:

a time latch circuit coupled to the delay circuit, the time latch circuit configured to sample a measurement time.

20. The circuit of claim 19, further comprising:

a trace buffer coupled to the ADC, the PC latch circuit and the time latch circuit, the trace buffer configured to store the sampled measurement time, the sampled PC and the digital data.