Patent Application
20130038422
The present invention relates generally to digital communication systems and more specifically to reducing the temperature in such systems.
In semiconductor technology, both the sizing and geometry of integrated circuits have consistently become smaller and smaller over the years, causing more hardware circuitry to be packed within each chip package or die. As a result of integrating more functionality and power amplifiers within each unit area, operating temperatures of many integrated circuits have become exceedingly high resulting in system instability and failure.
One approach to resolving the issue of high temperature integrated circuitry is the addition of a heat sink on the integrated circuit package. However, this solution substantially increases the manufacturing costs.
A second approach to reducing the integrated circuit temperature is to reduce the transmitter output power of the communication system. However, this method also decreases the wireless transmission range of the communication system.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method and system for reducing the temperature in an integrated circuit board. The method and system should be cost effective, easily implemented and adaptable to existing environments. The present invention addresses such a need.
The present invention satisfies this need, and presents a method and system for reducing the temperature of an integrated circuit. To achieve the above object, the present method is described as detecting a temperature of a communication system. The method and system further includes providing a signal based upon the detected temperature, and determining a desired idle time between transmit packets based upon the signal. Finally, the method and system includes sending the desired idle time between transmit packets to the communication system.
The various features of the present invention and the manner of attaining them will be described in greater detail with reference to the following description, claims, and drawings, wherein reference numerals are reused, where appropriate, to indicate a correspondence between the referenced items, and wherein:
The present invention relates generally to digital communication systems and more specifically to reducing the temperature in such systems.
The following description is presented to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention and is provided in the context of a patent application and its requirements. Various modifications to the preferred embodiments and the generic principles and features described herein will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features described herein.
A method and system in accordance with the present invention uses a temperature control scheme to detect the temperature of either an integrated circuit or of the communication system itself. Once the temperature is detected, the temperature information is sent to and idle time decision block where an idle time between transmit packets is determined and later sent to a communication system. In doing so, both reliability and efficiency of the communication system are improved because lower temperatures are sustained while consuming less overall system power. The temperature control scheme in accordance with the present invention can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The temperature control scheme in accordance with the present invention can also be implemented in hardware or application specific integrated circuits (ASIC).
The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or a semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or a propagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk, and an optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include DVD, compact disk-read-only memory (CD-ROM), and compact disk—read/write (CD-R/W). To describe the features of the present invention in more detail, refer now to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying Figures.
On this embodiment, a temperature sensor block 118 detects the temperature of the communication system 102, and sends the information to an idle time decision block (ITDB) 120. Based on the temperature received by the temperature sensor 118, an ITDB 120 calculates a desired idle time between transmit packets. If the temperature has risen, the idle time is increased by the idle time block 120 in order to reduce the transmit duty cycle, and hence the temperature. If the temperature has fallen, the idle time is decreased by the ITDB 120 in order to increase the data throughput. The desired idle time between transmit packets is then sent to any of the seven layers of the OSI model communication system 102, although in
A key feature of the present invention is the ITDB 120 can be implemented in accordance with one or more algorithms. Two of these algorithms will be discussed further.
For example, in this embodiment, if the temperature from the temperature sensor 118 is more than the threshold value Tt0 (202), the idle time will be increased between packets. However, if the temperature from the temperature sensor 118 is less than the signal threshold value Tt0 (202), the idle time will be decreased between the packets. In so doing, the temperature of the device can be effectively controlled. Although this system works effectively, it has a disadvantage in some environments where the temperature fluctuates around the threshold value which may require the idle time to be adjusted frequently.
Therefore, to address this issue, another possible approach to implementing the ITDB 120 involves the use of dual temperature threshold values.
A method and system in accordance with the present invention can be utilized in a variety of environments.
A baseband processor (BBP) 408 is coupled to a RF transmitter 410, and a power amplifier 412. The temperature sensor block 118 detects the temperature of the integrated circuit or the system. Though in
One advantage of a system and method in accordance with the present invention is improved system reliability and performance because less power is consumed in the operation of the overall communication system.
A second advantage of a system and method in accordance with the present invention is the reduced overall operating cost since less power is consumed in the operation of the overall communication system.
A third advantage of a system and method in accordance with the present invention is the ability to operate the communication system with reduced temperatures without affecting the wireless transmission range since the transmitter output power does not need to be reduced.
A fourth advantage is the elimination of the need of a head sink and/or an expensive IC package which would increase both the overall communication system cost and form factor.
Although the present invention has been described in accordance with the embodiments shown, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that there could be variations to the embodiments and those variations would be within the sprit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, many modifications may be made by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
