Texas Instruments Corporation

Hal Chen

Wenkai Wu

Weidong Zhu

Xuening Li

Kuang-Yao Cheng

One embodiment includes a power regulator system. The system includes a switch control stage configured to generate at least one activation signal based on a pulse-width modulation (PWM) signal and to control a respective at least one switch to generate an output voltage. The system also includes a feedback stage configured to generate the PWM signal based on a ramp signal and a feedback voltage that is based on the output voltage. The system further includes a ramp generator stage configured to adaptively generate the ramp signal based on the output voltage and based on the at least one activation signal.

Power regulator system with adaptive ramp signal generator

Systems and devices for smooth light load operation in a DC/DC converter are presented. The disclosed systems and methods enable smooth discontinuous conduction mode (DCM)/continuous conduction mode (CCM) transition. The disclosed systems and methods of smooth light load operation in a DC/DC converter may also avoid the generation of sub-harmonics during light load operation. In an example embodiment, a rising ramp is used to control the ON time of the converter oscillator, while a falling ramp controls the OFF time. During DCM operation, the minimum value of the falling ramp is clamped. The clamping of the falling ramp ensures a substantially similar level of the error amplifier output in both CCM and DCM and avoids disturbances caused by a difference in the error amplifier outputs between the modes.

Systems and methods of smooth light load operation in a DC/DC converter

Systems and devices for ripple reduction in a DC/DC converter are presented. The disclosed systems and methods enable ripple reduction in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) operation. In DCM, the inductor current peak to peak ripple may be reduced based on the load current. To achieve the reduction of the inductor peak to peak current ripple, a digital counter is used to count the time between consecutive PWM pulses. The digital output of the counter is used to control the pulse width modulation. As the digital output of the counter increases, the PWM on-time decreases. Since the PWM pulse is demanded by the load in DCM mode, the peak to peak inductor ripple is modulated by the counter, or, in turn, modulated by the load current.

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Hoboken, NJ, United States of America

Hal Chen