Performance based tuning of an inductive integrated voltage regulator driving a digital core against process and passive variations

摘要

This paper presents an auto-tuning method for fully integrated voltage regulators (IVRs) driving digital cores against variations in passive as well as process/temperature of the core. The key contribution is to perform auto-tuning of the coefficients of the feedback loop of the IVR based on the performance of the digital cores. Simulations using a high-frequency IVR Simulink model and digital logic in 45nm CMOS process shows that the proposed performance driven auto-tuning demonstrates potential for up to 12% increase in system performance under inductance and threshold variation.