Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC

Kevin Kelliher

Margaret Spillane

Paul J Harriman

Owen Cregg

Han Zou

A multiphase power stage that includes addressing and communication techniques to read temperatures of the phases for thermal load balancing is disclosed. The disclosure describes driver modules that can be assigned addresses for serial communication on a common communication bus by temporarily communicating the addresses over dedicated pulse width modulation connections between the driver modules and the controller. After assignment, a temperature request message, addressed to a driver module, can trigger the driver module to transmit an analog temperature signal to a common temperature bus coupled between the driver modules and the controller. The temperatures of the driver modules may be collected in order to activate and deactivate driver modules based on their temperatures, which can balance a thermal load on the multiphase power stage.

Monitoring temperature per phase in a multiphase power stage

A power stage configured for assigning each phase a unique address is disclosed. In particular, the disclosed power stage includes temporarily using a dedicated pulse width modulation (PWM) connection between a controller and a phase to assign a unique address to the phase. Then, after the assignment, the PWM connection may be returned to use for regulation, while the phases can communicate over a common communication bus using their assigned addresses. This addressed communication can be used to control a power state of all phases, all phases of a particular rail, or a particular phase. Controlling the power state with addressed commands communicated over a communication bus can help reduce the current consumed by the power stage during light load conditions or sleep states.

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Coolflugh, Ireland

Kevin Kelliher