×

Noise modulation for on-chip noise measurement

  • US 9,835,665 B2
  • Filed: 06/09/2014
  • Issued: 12/05/2017
  • Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2014
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
Patent Images

1. A method comprising:

  • determining an on-chip noise signal at an on-chip determination point on a computer chip;

    converting, using a voltage-controlled oscillator, the on-chip noise signal to a frequency-varying signal;

    providing the frequency-varying signal to an off-chip noise estimation unit that is external to the computer chip, the off-chip noise estimation unit comprising at least one member of the group consisting of an integrated circuit and a processor with associated memory;

    executing, by the off-chip noise estimation unit, windowing operations on the frequency-varying signal to yield a subset of the frequency-varying signal;

    executing, by the off-chip noise estimation unit, time-to-frequency domain conversion operations to convert the subset of the frequency-varying signal to a corresponding frequency domain signal; and

    determining, by the off-chip noise estimation unit, a voltage level associated with the on-chip noise signal based, at least in part, on frequency information extracted from the frequency domain signal and a relationship between an input voltage provided to the voltage-controlled oscillator and an output frequency generated by the voltage-controlled oscillator.

View all claims
  • 1 Assignment
Timeline View
Assignment View
    ×
    ×