Dell Products Inc.

Texas Instruments Corporation

Brent Alan McDonald

John J Breen

Erin Lane Price

Brian Patrick Johnson

Daniel E Jenkins

George Gilman Richards, Iii

Chris Morrow Young

Joseph Michael Leisten

John Christian Vogt

Philomena Cleopha Brady

Ananthakrishnan Viswanathan

Yalong Li

Anand Ganesh Dabak

Richard Martin Tonry

Salvatore Giombanco

Ayedin Nikazm

Christian L Critz

Nikolai V Vyssotski

Timothy Bryan Merkin

Pradeep S Shenoy

Constantin Darius Livescu

Maxim James Franke

Chris Michael Franklin

Stacy A Gower

Fan Wang

John A Herrmann

Ramkumar Sivakumar

George G Richards

An IC is coupled to a power stage having a first half bridge having first and second transistors and a second half bridge having third and fourth transistors. A controller has a first control output to provide first-fourth control signals to the first-fourth transistors. The controller asserts the first-fourth control signals to implement a state sequence. The state sequence includes a first state in which the first and fourth transistors are ON, a second state in which the first and third transistors are ON, a third state in which the second and fourth transistors are ON, and a fourth state in which the second and third transistors are ON. During each switching cycle, the controller implements the first and fourth states with one of the second or third states implemented between the first and fourth states, with every n switching cycles alternating implementation of the second or third states.

Pulse width modulator for a stacked half bridge

A method for operating a resonant converter in a burst mode includes determining the polarity of a transformer voltage across a secondary winding of a transformer. The method includes determining, from the polarity of the transformer voltage, on/off states of first and second transistors coupled to the secondary winding of the transformer. If the transformer voltage has a first polarity, the method includes commencing a burst period by alternately turning on/off high-side and low-side transistors electrically connected to a primary winding of the transformer.

Method of operating isolated resonant converter with synchronous rectifier

A switching converter controller includes: a control loop adapted to be coupled to an output terminal of a power stage; and a hybrid hysteretic control (HHC) circuit coupled to the control loop. The HHC circuit includes a resonant capacitor voltage (Vcr) node adapted to be coupled to a resonant capacitor (Cr) of the power stage, where the Vcr node sums a sense voltage for Cr with a frequency compensation ramp. The HHC circuit also includes a soft-start controller coupled to the Vcr node. The soft-start controller includes a clamp circuit coupled to the Vcr node.

Soft-start for switching converter controller with hybrid hysteretic control (HHC)

A circuit includes a first driver, a second driver, and a burst mode control circuit coupled to the first and second drivers. The burst mode control circuit is configured to implement a burst mode operation having a burst soft-on portion and a burst portion. During the soft-on portion of the burst mode operation, the burst mode control circuit is configured to cause the first and second drivers to produce a first set of pulses of increasing pulse width. During the burst portion of the burst mode operation, the burst mode control circuit is configured to cause the first and second drivers to produce a second set of pulses of a constant pulse width.

Burst mode operation for a resonant converter

A Power Factor Correction (PFC) controller includes an error amplifier for amplifying a difference between Vout and intended Vout to provide a power demand (Pdem) output at a compensation pin. A burst mode controller includes soft-start circuitry coupled to receive Pdem and to a drive pin which provides pulses to a control node of a power switch of a DC-DC converter during burst periods. The pulses slow ramping of line current over a first 2 to 36 switching cycles at a beginning of bursts when energizing the inductor to reduce a line current slope as compared to without ramping up, and for slowing ramping down of line current over the last 2 to 36 switching cycles to reduce a line current slope when de-energizing the inductor as compared to a line current without ramping down. The PFC controller does not utilize zero-crossings of the line voltage for burst period synchronization.

PFC controller providing reduced line current slope when in burst mode

Disclosed examples include methods and control circuits to operate a single or multi-phase DC-DC converter, including an output that turns a first switch on for a controlled on time and then turns the switch off for a controlled off time in successive control cycles, as well as a PWM circuit that computes a threshold time value corresponding to a predetermined peak inductor current and a duty cycle value, and computes a first time value according to an error value for a subsequent second switching control cycle. The PWM circuit sets the on time to the first time value to operate in a critical conduction mode for the second switching control cycle when the first time value is greater than or equal to the threshold time value, and otherwise sets the controlled on time to the threshold time value for discontinuous conduction mode operation in the second control cycle.

Single and multi-phase DC-DC converter mode control

An LLC converter includes an input having a first node and a second node. A first switch is coupled between the first node and a third node and a second switch is coupled between the third node and the second node. A transformer having a first transformer input is coupled to the third node. A resonant capacitor is coupled to a second transformer input and a first input of a summer. A voltage ramp generator is coupled to a second input of the summer, the summer for summing voltages at the first input and the second input. The converter further includes circuitry for generating control signals for the first switch and the second switch in response to the output of the summer.

Hybrid hysteretic control for LLC converter

A circuit includes a device monitoring component, a voltage error component, a current error component, a power error component, an error selecting component, a filter instruction component and a filter. The device monitoring component monitors load voltage and load current, and outputs a device state signal. The voltage error component outputs a voltage error signal. The current error component outputs a current error signal. The power error component outputs a power error signal. The error selecting component outputs a selected error signal. The filter instruction component outputs a filter instruction based on the device state signal. The filter outputs a modification signal to modify operation of a device so as to modify one of the load voltage, the load current and the load power.

System and method for optimizing constant power, constant current and constant voltage operation

Methods, control apparatus and series resonant or LLC power conversion systems are presented in which a resonant series circuit current is compared with a threshold during a portion of a modulation switching cycle following turn on of a corresponding switching device and one or more indications or remedial actions are undertaken to modify modulation control of a switching circuit in response to a determination that the resonant current is below the threshold to facilitate our promote zero voltage switching or near-zero voltage switching and provide current reversal protection.

LLC converter and loss of inductive mode detection circuit

A digital control circuit is provided for use with a switch-mode power converter that receives an input signal at a first input node and a control signal at a second input node, and that provides an output signal at a first output node and a current signal at a second output node. The digital control circuit generates a programmable current reference signal based on a difference between the output signal and a voltage reference signal, calculates a time instant when the current signal substantially equals the programmable reference current signal, and generates the control signal based on the calculated time instant.

Digital peak current mode control for switch-mode power converters

A power converter system is provided, comprising a plant having a plant input and a plant output; and a plant identification filter that receives the plant input and the plant output, and estimates the values of poles and zeros of the plant, wherein the plant identification filter updates the estimates of the poles and zeros, based upon the plant input and the plant output, beginning from an initial state; and a rate at which the plant identification filter updates the estimates of the values of the poles and zeros is slower than a rate at which the plant input and the plant output are received by the plant identification filter.

System and method for automatically tuning a voltage converter

An information handling system may comprise a direct-current to direct-current step-down power converter, a memory, and a processor. The step-down power converter may include a first inductive unit, a first switching unit connected between a voltage source and the first inductive unit, a second switching unit connected to ground, a capacitance unit connected between the second switching unit and the first inductive unit, and a second inductive unit connected between the second switching unit and the first inductive unit. The capacitance unit is configured to delay a change in voltage across the first or second switching units, and the second inductive unit is configured to delay a change in current in the first or second switching units.

Soft-switching voltage regulation in a step-down circuit

In an information handling system, a multi-phase electrical converter includes an electrical input, an electrical output, a plurality of converter phases coupled with the electrical input and the electrical output, and a controller to ramp operation of one or more of the converter phases as a load demand adjusts. In an embodiment the converter may be a multi-phase buck converter having a high side switch, a low side switch, and an inductor. In an embodiment, the controller may ramp operation of the converter phases by adjusting a duty cycle of the high side switch. In an embodiment, the controller may adjust a phase angle of one or more of the converter phases, wherein the adjustment may be relative to the ramping operation of the one or more of the converter phases.

Phase shedding converter with ripple minimization

A voltage regulator provides power to an information handling system component under management by a controller, such as a Buck circuit managed by a PID controller according to PID coefficient settings. An update module interfaced with the voltage regulator monitors operating conditions of the voltage regulator to update the coefficients used by the controller. For example, changes in the load applied to the voltage regulator and an inductance associated with the voltage regulator are used to periodically compute updated PID coefficients, which are then used by the controller to control the voltage regulator.

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Round Rock, TX, United States of America

Brent Alan McDonald