Volterra Semiconductor Corporation

Biljana Beronja

Anthony J Stratakos

David B Lidsky

Michael D McJimsey

Aaron M Schultz

Trey Roessig

Charles Roger Sullivan

Jieli Li

Charles Nickel

Ion E Opris

Budong You

Ilija Jergovic

Andrew J Burstein

Sombuddha Chakraborty

Ognjen Djekic

Giovanni Garcea

Luigi Panseri

Andrea Pizzutelli

Andy Burstein

Theodore Vinko Burmas

Yali Xiong

Paul H Choi

Alexandr Ikriannikov

Alexander Ikriannikov

Disclosed are systems, devices, circuits, components, mechanisms, and processes in which a switching mechanism can be coupled between components. The switching mechanism is configured to have an on state or an off state, where the on state allows current to pass along a current path. A monitoring mechanism has one or more sensing inputs coupled to sense an electrical characteristic at the current path. The electrical characteristic can be a current, voltage, and/or power by way of example. The monitoring mechanism is configured to output a reporting signal indicating the sensed electrical characteristic. The monitoring mechanism can be integrated with the switching mechanism on a chip.

Integrated protection devices with monitoring of electrical characteristics

A regulated, power supply system is described using multiphase DC-DC converters with dynamic fast-turnon, slow-turnoff phase shedding, early phase turn-on, and both load-voltage and drive-transistor feedback to pulsewidth modulators to provide fast response to load transients. In an embodiment, a system master can automatically determine whether all, or only some, slave phase units are fully populated. The programmable system includes fault detection with current and voltage sensing, telemetry capability, and automatic shutdown capability. In an embodiment, these are buck-type converters with or without coupled inductors, however some of the embodiments illustrated include boost configurations.

Systems and methods for DC-to-DC converter control

A multi-phase, coupled-inductor, DC-DC voltage converter operates in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) when the system is operated at low output power demand. An embodiment of the converter switches to operating in continuous conduction mode (CCM) when the system is operated at high output power demand. Operation in single-drive and rotating phase DCM operation at low power are described. An alternative embodiment operates in a multiple-drive, rotating-phase, discontinuous conduction mode during at least one condition of output power demand.

Method and apparatus for multi-phase DC-DC converters using coupled inductors in discontinuous conduction mode

A voltage regulator coupled to an unregulated DC input voltage source by an input terminal, and to a load by an output terminal is disclosed. The voltage regulator converts an input voltage at the input terminal to an output voltage at the output terminal. The voltage regulator includes one or more slaves, and each slave includes a switching circuit. During each switching period of the switching circuit, the current for the slave is checked; namely, after the beginning of a low-side conduction period, and before the beginning of a high-side conduction period.

Voltage regulator with adaptation control

Master-slave with adaptation control including slave current checking

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Biljana Beronja