Autonomous thermal controller for power management IC

Abstract

Techniques for autonomous thermal management of a power-management integrated circuit (PMIC). In an exemplary embodiment, an embedded microcontroller is provided on the PMIC to store instructions for implementing a thermal controller. The thermal controller may manage in real-time the current scaling factors of a plurality of modules coupled to corresponding off-chip power entities. The thermal controller may include registers that are programmable by an off-chip entity such as a microprocessor to specify parameters such as module priorities and a minimum current scaling factor for each module. Power entities that may be controlled by the autonomous thermal controller include, e.g., a battery charger, and/or one or more user-interface entities such as a back light display driver, a flash LED driver, or an audio amplifier.

Description

[0001] background technical field [0002] The present disclosure relates to thermal management for power management integrated circuits (PMICs). Background technique [0003] Power management integrated circuits (PMICs) are circuits specifically designed to manage system power consumption. Specifically, a PMIC can process raw voltage from a power source, such as a battery, and in turn supply regulated voltages to drive multiple off-chip power consuming entities separate from the PMIC. Modern PMICs are becoming increasingly integrated due to greater system complexity. A typical PMIC may include many high-power on-chip blocks for driving off-chip power-consuming entities such as switch-mode battery chargers (SMBCs), backlight display drivers (WLEDs), buck regulators, audio amplifiers, and flash LED drivers. On-chip modules dissipate considerable power while handling power to and from off-chip entities. [0004] In some system implementations, concurrent usage scenarios of ...

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However, this crude technique may not provide the flexibility and contr

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