Power Management Circuit with Register-Retained Wake-Up Configuration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modern integrated circuits face challenges in efficiently managing power states and configuring themselves quickly upon wake-up events, as existing solutions often require reading configuration data from non-volatile memory, which is time-consuming and power-intensive.
Innovation Solution
The proposed solution involves a power management circuit that transitions into a low-power standby state, where configuration data is preserved by a pre-regulator voltage, and upon a wake-up event, the data is applied from configuration registers to enable the circuit, allowing for rapid configuration and operation without re-reading from non-volatile memory.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If configuration data is read from non-volatile memory during wake-up, then the circuit can be configured, but wake-up time is long and power consumption is high
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by copying configuration data from non-volatile memory to configuration registers during the initial power-up sequence. During subsequent wake-up events, the circuit directly uses the pre-loaded configuration registers without re-reading from non-volatile memory, thereby eliminating the time-consuming memory read operation and achieving fast wake-up performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements copying by creating a duplicate copy of the configuration data in configuration registers that can be quickly accessed. The configuration registers serve as a local cache copy of the data stored in non-volatile memory, allowing rapid configuration during wake-up without accessing the slower non-volatile memory device.
2Ease of operation
If configuration data is read from non-volatile memory during wake-up, then the circuit can be configured, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs the power-intensive operation of reading configuration data from non-volatile memory only once during initial power-up. The configuration data is pre-loaded into configuration registers that consume minimal power to maintain. During wake-up events, the circuit simply reuses the pre-loaded data from registers, avoiding repeated high-power memory access operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a copy of the configuration data in configuration registers that require minimal power to maintain. This copy eliminates the need for repeated high-power reads from non-volatile memory during wake-up events, significantly reducing power consumption while maintaining full configuration capability.
3Productivity
If the circuit remains in active state, then configuration can be applied quickly, but power consumption is high
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic state management by allowing the circuit to transition between active and low-power states based on operational needs. The configuration registers are designed to retain data across state transitions, enabling the circuit to enter low-power states when configuration changes are not required, and quickly return to active state when configuration is needed, optimizing the balance between productivity and power consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses configuration registers as a persistent copy of configuration data that remains valid across power states. This allows the circuit to spend most time in low-power states while maintaining configuration capability through the registered copy, only transitioning to active state when actual configuration application or modification is required.
Data Source
AI summary
In an embodiment, an electronic circuit includes: a supply management circuit for receiving an input supply voltage and providing a first supply voltage; and a main circuit configured to: when the input supply voltage becomes higher than a first threshold, cause the electronic circuit to transition into an initialization state in which an oscillator is enabled and configuration data is copied from an NVM to configuration registers, and then to transition into a standby state in which the oscillator is disabled and content of the configuration registers is preserved by the first supply voltage, and, upon reception of a wakeup event, cause the configuration data from the configuration registers to be applied to the first circuit, and cause the electronic circuit to transition into an active state in which the first oscillator is enabled and the first circuit is configured to operate based on the configuration data.