This relates generally to the generation of voltage ramps.
Voltage ramps are simply triangular waveforms that are useful in many applications such as the generation of pulse width modulated (PWM) signals. Pulse width modulated signals are used in a wide variety of applications including power management and displays.
Traditionally, ramp generators for pulse width modulated signals use a current source integrator. A current source integrator generally involves the use of analog components with calibrated values. In addition, the traditional solution uses a voltage domain digital-to-analog converter based on current sources, resistor ladders and the like. In such cases, the speed of the ramp is limited by the decoder and is complex when producing a large number of bits.
Some embodiments are described with respect to the following figures:
According to some embodiments, an all digital ramp generator may use a string of series connected delays or digital to time-based circuits to perform voltage ramp generation. Thus in some embodiments conventional operational amplifier circuits and relaxation oscillators may be replaced for generating triangular ramp waveforms for DC to DC or direct time-based DC to DC converters. The use of delay lines may produce sufficient resolution for many applications. Thus time domain techniques may afford a more digital approach that scales with process technology and allows high speed operation in some embodiments. A design based on use of inverters and capacitors may scale well with process technology. The decoder and drive logic may be integrated into the voltage ramp generation in some embodiments.
In
The delay line may include a plurality of parallel connected inverter outputs (see e.g. inverters 18, 36 and 34 in
In some embodiments, very high frequency pulse width modulated signals may be produced for power management including signals in the range of 10 MegaHertz to 1 GigaHertz. At higher frequencies it may be easier to suppress noise in the switching regulator. But with too high of a frequency, there may be switching losses.
Thus referring to
As a result, an interpolated delay line may be implemented in some embodiments. When a clock edge from a clock in signal is propagated through the delay line, the voltage at each of the capacitor 44 inputs is changed, but with a delay.
In systems without an external clock, a ring oscillator may be implemented. The oscillator may be part of a phase locked loop (PLL) or a delay locked loop (DLL) structure. The PLL or DLL structure may be part of a power management unit clock generator in some embodiments. Thus referring to
In some embodiments the interpolated delay line may be the result of the arrangement between the output of the inverter 18 and the outputs from the inverters 34 and 36. Note that the inverters 34 and 36 receive their inputs from stages previous to the input to the inverter 18. Thus there are three inverters whose outputs are shorted together. The input for one inverter of the three comes from the previous stage, the inverter for another inverter of the three comes from three stages before and the input for the third inverter comes from five stages before. While there is no need for a particular number of inverters, any number of inverters in parallel can be used to produce the interpolated delay. Thus what happens is the signal starts transitioning even before it would otherwise, because it is receiving inputs from further up in the chain. Normally, because of the delays in the cell, as the signal propagates down the line, the transition occurs successively. For example if you want the inverter 22 to toggle before the inverter 24 starts transitioning, the inverter 24 toggles and the inverter 26 starts transitioning. The inverter 26 output starts transitioning even as the inverter 22 starts transitioning. This results in interpolation between delays and allows adjustment of the final resolution of delays. Then the voltage ramp may mimic an ideal triangular wave more closely without so much filtering in the summing network or in the output of the DC to DC converter when removing noise, in some embodiments.
There are many improvements that can be made in some embodiments. If the inverter delays are good enough due to advanced process technology, then a single series connected string of inverters may be sufficient in some embodiments.
The use of delays or digital time based circuits to do voltage ramp generation may provide an all digital ramp in some embodiments. If finer resolution is needed, then a variety of other techniques may be used. Generally there are three options. If a clock in is used then a delay line is used, and if there is no clock in then a ring oscillator is used. Precise spectral control in a third embodiment of the output voltage may be accomplished by embedding the delay line or ring oscillator in PLL or DLL as shown in
Thus a simple example is shown in
The length of the delay line can be adjusted by controlling the length of the line of series connected inverters by digitally disabling extra inverters, for example using the switch 48 which either opens or closes the bypass 50 around the inverter 16 as shown in
Adjustments to the amount of delay or interpolation can be made by changing the number of devices in parallel, the drive strength of each device or the load that is driven into.
Thus as shown in
There are some specific implementations that may be able to benefit from the ramp generator. For example, a regular switching DC to DC converter may use a ramp generator as described herein. In a regular control loop of a fast DC to DC converter, an input voltage Vin is mapped to a ramp as shown in
In a regular analog to DC converter there is a block that is a comparator where you compare the input to an analog ramp and the output is a pulse width modulated signal. Now the ramp can be generated digitally.
Another application is an all digital DC to DC converter, for example for digital to time conversion. If an all digital DC to DC converter is used then the command word or input voltage as depicted in
Then the ramp is available relative to the input and the duty cycle is determined by the zero crossing of the inverter. This is shown in
The precharging of the capacitors in the summing network can be done in various ways. For example, the capacitors of the capacitor summing network may be precharged using a binary weighting scheme. As another example, the capacitors may be precharged using separate capacitive digital-to-analog converters to generate a Vin as described in connection with the regular switching DC to DC converter application above.
In a binary weighting scheme, the capacitors may have the same weight but one can change the weights using filtering in the combining network. The waveform goes through the delays and then through the weighted combiner that acts like a finite impulse response (FIR) filter. But one can also combine the capacitor outputs with a binary capacitor bank or a scaled capacitor bank, for example in an analog to digital converter network, using binary weighted capacitor banks.
A third application is for analog to digital converters. For single slope analog to digital converters, several binary weighted digital ramp generators can be cascaded with a control loop that stops the input clock to each bank, such that the input is resolved as shown in
This circuit may be useful for window analog to digital converters of a digital DC to DC converter. The values of the capacitors in each bank may, in one embodiment, be 1×, 2×, and 4× values. The three networks of delay elements with capacitive combiners have their outputs combined. This may be advantageous in a data converter or a single slope converter where you extract a most significant bit, then a next most significant bit, and so one until you get to the least significant bit. Because you extract a bit at a time, each bit has a binary weight relative to the previous bit and the next bit. With binary weighting, these banks make it easier to implement the bit extraction.
In some embodiments each bank need not have the exact value it should have. For example due to process errors or limitations, the banks may have capacitors that are not exactly as specified. For example the bank 82 may have capacitors at 1 picofarad and the bank 84 is supposed to have capacitors at 2 picofarads. But suppose they are really 1.9 picofarads. The interpolation may be used adjusted to compensate for the capacitor variation. As another example the time delays between the signals driving the banks may be adjusted to compensate for the error using the tuning or tuning or calibrating circuit 64 which changes the input values to self compensate once it is known what compensation is needed. Thus a calibration scheme may be used to compensate for the process variations. The calibration scheme may run in the foreground or the background using well known techniques.
Referring now to
As shown in
The architecture of transmitter 200 of
In one or more embodiments, the decomposition algorithm should satisfy the following equation:
2 cos(θ(t))=cos(θ1(t))+cos(θ2(t))
in which, θ is the phase of an out-phasing scheme. By utilizing a proper choice of θ1 and θ2, main PA 228 is on most or all of the time and overload PA 230 is used only occasionally to service any needed peak power. Such an arrangement as shown in
The current or the power at the outputs of the two separately driven power amplifiers, main PA 228 and overload PA 230, is summed at the output via a power combining technique that may include, but is not limited to current summing and RF power combining using passive elements, although the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in this respect. The mapping of θ to θ1 and θ2, can be implemented using any one or more of the following techniques: modification of the coordinated rotation digital computer (CORDIC) algorithm to generate θ1 and θ2, directly; generation of mapping of θ to θ1 and θ2 via utilization of a look up table; and/or generation of θ to θ1 and θ2 using a feedback signal to avoid distortion during the overlap of the modulation angles, although the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in these respects. Although transmitter 200 of
Referring now to
In one or more embodiments, information handling system 800 may include an applications processor 810 and a baseband processor 812. Applications processor 810 may be utilized as a general purpose processor to run applications and the various subsystems for information handling system 800. Applications processor 810 may include a single core or alternatively may include multiple processing cores wherein one or more of the cores may comprise a digital signal processor or digital signal processing core. Furthermore, applications processor 810 may include a graphics processor or coprocessor disposed on the same chip, or alternatively a graphics processor coupled to applications processor 810 may comprise a separate, discrete graphics chip. Applications processor 810 may include on board memory such as cache memory, and further may be coupled to external memory devices such as synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) 814 for storing and/or executing applications during operation, and NAND flash 816 for storing applications and/or data even when information handling system 800 is powered off. In general, any of the memory devices of information handling system 800 may comprise an article of manufacture having instructions stored thereon that cause a processor of the information handling system 800 to execute the instructions to implement any method or process wholly or in part as described herein. Baseband processor 812 may control the broadband radio functions for information handling system 800. Baseband processor 812 may store code for controlling such broadband radio functions in a NOR flash 818. Baseband processor 812 controls a wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceiver 820 which is used for modulating and/or demodulating broadband network signals, for example for communicating via a Wi-Fi, LTE or WiMAX network or the like as discussed herein. The WWAN transceiver 820 couples to one or more power amps 822 respectively coupled to one or more antennas 824 for sending and receiving radio-frequency signals via the WWAN broadband network. The baseband processor 812 also may control a wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver 826 coupled to one or more suitable antennas 828 and which may be capable of communicating via a Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and/or an amplitude modulation (AM) or frequency modulation (FM) radio standard including an IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n standard or the like. It should be noted that these are merely example implementations for applications processor 810 and baseband processor 812, and the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in these respects. For example, any one or more of SDRAM 814, NAND flash 816 and/or NOR flash 818 may comprise other types of memory technology such as magnetic memory, chalcogenide memory, phase change memory, or ovonic memory, and the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in this respect.
In one or more embodiments, applications processor 810 may drive a display 830 for displaying various information or data, and may further receive touch input from a user via a touch screen 832 for example via a finger or a stylus. An ambient light sensor 834 may be utilized to detect an amount of ambient light in which information handling system 800 is operating, for example to control a brightness or contrast value for display 830 as a function of the intensity of ambient light detected by ambient light sensor 834. One or more cameras 836 may be utilized to capture images that are processed by applications processor 810 and/or at least temporarily stored in NAND flash 816. Furthermore, applications processor may couple to a gyroscope 838, accelerometer 840, magnetometer 842, audio coder/decoder (CODEC) 844, and/or global positioning system (GPS) controller 846 coupled to an appropriate GPS antenna 848, for detection of various environmental properties including location, movement, and/or orientation of information handling system 800. Alternatively, controller 846 may comprise a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) controller. Audio CODEC 844 may be coupled to one or more audio ports 850 to provide microphone input and speaker outputs either via internal devices and/or via external devices coupled to information handling system via the audio ports 850, for example via a headphone and microphone jack. In addition, applications processor 810 may couple to one or more input/output (I/O) transceivers 852 to couple to one or more I/O ports 854 such as a universal serial bus (USB) port, a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) port, a serial port, and so on. Furthermore, one or more of the I/O transceivers 852 may couple to one or more memory slots 856 for optional removable memory such as secure digital (SD) card or a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, although the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in these respects.
Referring now to
The following clauses and/or examples pertain to further embodiments:
One example embodiment may be an apparatus comprising a digital delay line, and a digital capacitor summing network coupled to said delay line to output a ramp waveform. The apparatus may also include said delay line is a ring oscillator. The apparatus may also include said delay line is an interpolated delay line. The apparatus may include said delay line is part of a phase locked loop or a delay locked loop. The apparatus may include said delay line includes an inverter string having a number of inverters and a circuit to tune the delay. The apparatus may include said circuit to change the number of inverters. The apparatus may include at least two parallel connected ramp generators and a fractional delay cell. The apparatus may include a comparator coupled to said capacitor summing network. The apparatus may include a tuning circuit coupled to an input to said delay line, said circuit to adapt the input to account for process variations in said network. The apparatus may include a precharged network. The apparatus may include a binary weighting scheme. The apparatus may include an antenna, touch screen and an applications processor.
Another example embodiment may be a method comprising generating a plurality of delayed outputs, using a capacitor summing network to sum said outputs, and generating a ramp waveform from said summed outputs. The method may also include using a ring oscillator to generate said outputs. The method may also include using an interpolated delay line to generate said outputs. The method may also include tuning the delay. The method may also include tuning the delay by changing a number of inverters in an interpolated delay line. The method may also include using a tuning circuit coupled to an input to said delay line, to adapt the input to account for process variations in said network. The method may also include using at least two parallel connected ramp generators and a fractional delay cell. The method may also include precharging the capacitor summing network.
In another example embodiment an apparatus comprising a device including an interpolated delay line or a ring oscillator, and a capacitive summing network coupled to said device. The apparatus may include said delay line is part of a phase locked loop or a delay locked loop. The apparatus may include said delay line includes an inverter string having a number of inverters and a circuit to tune the delay. The apparatus may include said circuit to change the number of inverters. The apparatus may include a comparator coupled to said capacitor summing network.
References throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one implementation encompassed within the present disclosure. Thus, appearances of the phrase “one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be instituted in other suitable forms other than the particular embodiment illustrated and all such forms may be encompassed within the claims of the present application.
While a limited number of embodiments have been described, those skilled in the art will appreciate numerous modifications and variations therefrom. It is intended that the appended claims cover all such modifications and variations as fall within the true spirit and scope of this disclosure.