Stmicroelectronics S.r.l.

Fabrizio Bognanni

Claudio Adragna

Francesco Pulvirenti

Aldo Vittorio Novelli

Giuseppe Cantone

Vincenzo Marano

Claudio Spini

Giovanni Caggegi

A circuit includes a current path and a negative bootstrap circuitry coupled to the current path. The current path is coupled between a floating voltage and a reference ground, and includes a current generator coupled through a resistor to the floating voltage at a first node of the current generator. The current generator is controlled by a pulse signal. The negative bootstrap circuitry includes a pump capacitor coupled to a second node of the current generator and to the reference ground. The pump capacitor is configured to provide a negative voltage at the second node of the current generator based on the pulse signal.

Circuit to transfer a signal between different voltage domains and corresponding method to transfer a signal

An effective method enhances energy saving at low load in a resonant converter with a hysteretic control scheme for implementing burst-mode at light load. The method causes a current controlled oscillator of the converter to stop oscillating when a feedback control current of the output voltage of the converter reaches a first threshold value, and introduces a nonlinearity in the functional relation between the frequency of oscillation and said feedback control current or in a derivative of the functional relation, while the control current is between a lower, second threshold value and the first threshold value, such that the frequency of oscillation remains equal or smaller than the frequency of oscillation when the control current is equal to the second threshold value. Several circuital implementations are illustrated, all of simple realization without requiring any costly microcontroller.

Burst-mode control method for low input power consumption in resonant converters and related control device

Growing community of inventors

Piacenza, Italy

Fabrizio Bognanni