Lion Semiconductor Inc.

John Crossley

Hanh-Phuc Le

Wonyoung Kim

Alberto Alessandro Angelo Puggelli

Thomas Li

Zhipeng Li

Hans Meyvaert

Bertram J Rodgers

Fred Chen

Aaron Melgar

Alberto Puggelli

Circuits comprising: a capacitor; switches that, when State0, couple the capacitor in parallel with the load and, when State1, couple the capacitor in series with the load, wherein a first of the switches connects the capacitor to ground when in State0 and wherein a second of the switches connects the capacitor to an input voltage when in State1; a third switch, wherein a first side of the third switch is connected to the capacitor identically to one of the first switch and the second switch (OFWSW), wherein the third switch switches identically to the OFWSW, wherein the third switch is smaller than the OFWSW; a first resistor connected to the second side of the third switch; and a hardware processor that measures a current flowing through the first resistor and estimates the current provided to the load based on the current measured as flowing through the first resistor.

Circuits and methods for measuring the output current of a switched capacitor regulator

Circuits comprising: an inductor having a first side connected to V; a first switch having a first side connected to a second side of the inductor; a second switch having a first side connected to V; a first capacitor having a first side connected to a second side of the second switch; a third switch having a first side connected to a second side of the first switch; a fourth switch having a first side connected to a second side of the third switch; a fifth switch having a first side connected to a second side of the first capacitor and to a second side of the fourth switch, and having a second side coupled to a voltage source; and a second capacitor having a first side connected to the first side of the fourth switch, and having a second side connected to the second side of the fifth switch.

Circuits for a hybrid switched capacitor converter

A feedback system that can control hybrid regulator topologies that have multiple converters or regulators connected in series is described. The hybrid regulator can include at least two regulators: a switched inductor regulator and a switched-capacitor regulator. The feedback system can simplify feedback design for the hybrid regulator that can include multiple converter stages and can control the feedback to improve the efficiency of a hybrid regulator.

Feedback control for hybrid regulator including a buck converter and a switched capacitor converter

The present disclosure provides an asymmetric switching capacitor regulator that is capable of providing an output voltage, covering a wide voltage range, with a high efficiency. The disclosed switching capacitor regulator is configured to generate a wide range of an output voltage by differentiating a voltage across one or more switching capacitors from a voltage across the rest of the switching capacitors in the switching capacitor regulator.

Asymmetric switching capacitor regulator

The present disclosure shows a reconfigurable Dickson Star SC regulator that can support multiple conversion ratios by reconfiguring between various modes. The reconfigurable Dickson Star SC regulator is designed to reduce the number of redundant capacitors by reusing capacitors and switches across multiple modes of operation (across multiple conversion ratios). The present disclosure also shows a hybrid (e.g., two-stage) voltage regulator.

Reconfigurable dickson star switched capacitor voltage regulator

The present disclosure shows ways to use multiple 'integrated voltage regulator (IVR) units' to offer IVRs that can cover a wide range of specifications without having to design separate IVRs for different specifications. Instead of designing separate IVRs and paying for separate mask sets for IVRs targeting different specifications (e.g., different design and mask sets for 1 A IVR, 5 A IVR), the disclosed embodiments present ways to design and fabricate large numbers of the same unit IVRs (e.g., 1 A IVR) and decide how many of them to use post-fabrication to deliver different current specifications (e.g., use five 1 A unit IVRs for 5 A, use ten 1 A unit IVRs for 10 A). These disclosed embodiments reduce the mask cost of fabricating IVRs for different specifications and reduce design time by focusing on a single unit IVR.

Reconfigurable power regulator

Voltage regulator systems include, in part, a regulator comprising an input terminal and an output terminal, wherein the regulator is configured to receive an input voltage from an adapter at the input terminal and provide an output voltage at the output terminal, wherein the regulator comprises at least one switched capacitor regulator operating in a first conversion mode corresponding to a first conversion factor. The voltage regulator systems also include a controller configured to control an operation of the regulator, wherein the controller is configured to determine when a conversion ratio of the regulator is greater than the first conversion factor, and, in response, to send a request to the adapter to decrease the input voltage.

Voltage regulator systems configured to control input voltage

Apparatus, systems and methods for reconfigurable dickson star switched capacitor voltage regulator

The present disclosure shows a hybrid regulator topology that can be more easily integrated and that can maintain high efficiency across a wide output and input voltage range, even with a small inductor. The hybrid regulator topology can include two types of regulators: a flying switched-inductor regulator and a step-down regulator that divides the input voltage into an M/N fraction of the input voltage. The disclosed embodiments of the hybrid regulator topology can reduce the capacitive loss of the flying switched-inductor regulator by limiting the voltage swing across the switches in the flying switched-inductor regulator. The disclosed embodiments of the hybrid regulator topology can reduce the inductor resistive loss of the flying switched-inductor regulator by operating the flying switched-inductor regulator at a high switching frequency and with a small amount of current flow through the inductor.

Growing community of inventors

Oakland, CA, United States of America

John Crossley