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Amazon patents chip that tracks power use for each part of a device

Patent drawing
Patent drawing from the official filing.

Amazon has been granted a patent for a power management chip that measures how much electricity each separate part of an electronic device uses. It uses a single converter to check multiple power lines one by one, storing the results so the device can manage energy more efficiently.

Why it mattersThis design helps devices like phones or laptops use battery power more effectively by monitoring specific components rather than just the total draw.

In the filing’s own words

Technologies directed to a power monitoring circuit are described. The power monitoring circuit includes multiple circuit branches each corresponding to an independent voltage rail of an independent subsystem and having an averaging circuit, an oversampling circuit, and an accumulating circuit, and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that selectively couples to each of the circuit branches. The ADC converts an accumulated current, output by the respective accumulating circuit, to a digital value representing power consumption by the respective independent subsystem. The ADC stores the digital value in a register. The digital values of each independent subsystem can be provided to the electronic device.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A power management integrated circuit (PMIC) comprising: a set of N number of power regulators, each power regulator of the set of N number of power regulators to provide an independent voltage rail to an independent subsystem of an electronic device, the independent subsystem being coupled to the PMIC, wherein N is a positive integer greater than one; and a power monitoring subsystem coupled to the set of N number of power regulators, wherein the power monitoring subsystem comprises: an N-to-1 multiplexer; a single analog-to-digital converter (ADC) coupled to the N-to-1 multiplexer; a set of N number of registers, each register of the set of N number of registers to store a digital value representing power consumption of one of the independent voltage rails; and a set of N circuit branches coupled to the N-to-1 multiplexer, wherein each of the set of N circuit branches comprises: an averaging circuit to determine an average current by measuring and averaging an input current of the independent voltage rail corresponding to the respective independent subsystem; an oversampling circuit to determine an oversampled current by oversampling the average current; and an accumulating circuit to determine an accumulated current by accumulating the oversampled current, wherein the single ADC, for each of the independent voltage rail, is to convert the accumulated current to the digital value representing the power consumption of the respective independent voltage rail and store the digital value in the respective register of the set of N number of registers.

Facts

Company
Amazon (Amazon Technologies, Inc.)
Official title
Integrated power monitoring system for transient power management on a per-rail or per-subsystem basis
Patent number
US12756319B1
Application number
19081908
Filed
Mar 17, 2025
Granted
Oct 6, 2026
Inventors
2
Claims
20

Classified under

H02M 3/16 Electricity & electronicsG01R 21/133 Physics & computing
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.