Renesas Electronics America Inc.

Ankit Sharma

Chun Cheung

Shea Lynn Petricek

Bo Wang

Methods and systems for operating a voltage regulator are described. A integrated circuit can be configured to adjust at least one of a deadtime parameter and a drive strength parameter of a power stage based on at least one of an input voltage being provided to a power stage, a switch node voltage of the power stage, and an output current of the power stage. A controller of the power stage can be further configured to adjust a deadtime of the power stage based on adjustment of the deadtime parameter. The controller can be further configured to adjust a drive strength of the first driver and the second driver based on adjustment of the drive strength parameter.

Power stage adaptive deadtime and drive strength

According to certain aspects, the present embodiments are directed to techniques for providing the ability to monitor one or more operational parameters of a voltage regulator. In embodiments, the voltage regulator is a multiphase voltage regulator having a plurality of power stages corresponding to each respective phase. In these and other embodiments, the operational parameters include one or both of a phase current and a phase temperature. According to certain additional aspects, the present embodiments provide the ability to monitor the respective phase current output and phase temperature of each phase independently. According to further aspects, this ability to monitor the operational parameters is achieved while minimizing circuit complexity.

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Milpitas, CA, United States of America

Ankit Sharma