Self-checking scheme for the on-line testing of power supply noise

We propose a self-checking scheme for the on-line testing of power supply noise, exceeding a tolerance bound, to be chosen according to system constraints. Upon the occurrence of such a noise, our scheme provides an output error message, which can be exploited for diagnostic purposes or to recover from the detected noise (thus guaranteeing correct system operation). As far as we are aware, no on-line testing scheme for power supply noise has been proposed up to now. Our scheme has negligible impact upon system performance, features a self-checking ability (with respect to a wide set of possible internal faults) and reveals, on-line, the occurrence of power supply noise, despite the possible presence of noise affecting ground.

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