Texas Instruments Corporation

Texas Instruments Incorporated Deutschland, Gmbh

Kevin Scoones

Orlando Lazaro

Reza Sharifi

Alvaro Aguilar

Jeffrey Anthony Morroni

Neil Gibson

Erich Bayer

Saurav Bandyopadhyay

Joerg Kirchner

Franz Prexl

Gerhard Thiele

Stefan Reithmaier

Siew Kuok Hoon

Jairo Daniel Olivares

Kai Zhu

Vadim Valerievich Ivanov

Sombuddha Chakraborty

David W Evans

Anmol Sharma

Erich-Johann Bayer

Thomas Keller

James L Krug

Walter Bucksch

Martin Rommel

Frank R Fattori

Guenter Heinecke

Pradeep Katikaneni

Laszlo Goetz

Eckart Mueller

In described examples of methods and control circuitry to control a multi-level power conversion system, the control circuitry generates PWM signals having a duty cycle to control an output signal. The duty cycle is adjustable in different switching cycles. States of the system's switches are adjustable in one or more intervals within the switching cycles. In response to a voltage across a capacitor of the system being outside a non-zero voltage range, the control circuitry adjusts states of the switches in two intervals to discharge or charge the capacitor in a given switching cycle.

Hysteretic pulse modulation for charge balance of multi-level power converters

In a described example, an apparatus includes a first switch coupled between a terminal for receiving an input voltage and a top plate node, and having a first control terminal; a second switch coupled between the top plate node and a switching node, and having a second control terminal; a third switch coupled between the switching node and a bottom plate node and having a third control terminal; a fourth switch coupled between the bottom plate node and a ground terminal, and having a fourth control terminal; a flying capacitor coupled between the top plate node and the bottom plate node; a fifth switch coupled between the top plate node and an auxiliary node; a sixth switch coupled between the auxiliary node and the bottom plate node; and an auxiliary capacitor coupled between the auxiliary control terminal and a ground terminal.

Three-level converter using an auxiliary switched capacitor circuit

A driver circuit includes two high-side switches and a single low-side switch, output inductor, and output capacitor. By having multiple high-side switches, the driver can regulate power from multiple charging devices. The high-side switches share a channel with an input capacitor for that channel and the channels are connected to the low-side switch at a common node. When the capacitor for one of the channels becomes charged quickly, the capacitor of the other channel will balance itself with the charged capacitor. To avoid damaging the high-side switches, a low-impedance bridge and driver circuit is connected between the channels.

Capacitor balanced driver circuit for dual input charger

A power converter device includes a set of switches configured to switch between at least three input-side voltage levels to provide output pulses. The power converter device also includes a control circuit for the set of switches, wherein the control circuit configured to selectively switch the power converter device between a continuous conduction mode of operation (CCM) having a first charge per pulse and a discontinuous conduction mode of operation (DCM) having a second charge per pulse, the second charge per pulse being greater than the first charge per pulse.

Multi-level converter with continuous conduction mode (CCM) and discontinuous conduction mode (DCM)

In described examples of methods and control circuitry to control a power conversion system, a regulator circuit is coupled to provide switching control signals according to a regulation signal to operate a plurality of converter switches to generate a voltage signal at a switching node. A compensation sense circuit is coupled to provide a compensation pulse signal having a duty cycle that represents a percentage of time that a current flowing through the switching node is above a threshold value. A current compensation circuit adjusts the regulation signal according to the compensation pulse signal.

Inductor current sensing and regulation for power converter

In described examples of methods and control circuitry to control a multi-level power conversion system with a flying capacitor, a power circuit regulates a regulator input voltage signal to provide a supply voltage signal to the control circuitry. A power switching circuit couples the regulator input to a first terminal of the flying capacitor in response to a second terminal of the flying capacitor being coupled to a reference voltage node in a given switching cycle, and couples the regulator input to the second terminal in response to the first terminal being coupled to an input node of the power conversion system in the given switching cycle.

Voltage step-down technique for deriving gate-charge using multi-level core architecture

A voltage converter includes a high side transistor, a low side transistor coupled to the high side transistor at a switching node, and an inductor coupled to the switching node and providing an output node. A controller is provided that is coupled to the high side transistor and the low side transistor. The controller is configured to selectively turn on and off the high and low side transistors in a repeat cycle. The controller is configured to control the high and low side transistors to cause a sequence of packets of charge to be delivered to the inductor. Also included is an adaptive timer circuit coupled to the output node and the controller and configured to adaptively adjust the amount of charge in each packet based on the voltage ripple of the output node.

Circuit and method for direct current (DC)-DC voltage converter with adaptive charge transfer

DC-DC voltage converter with adaptive charge transferring capability

Systems and methods of driving multiple outputs are provided in which a single inductor may be used to drive multiple output such as independent strings of LEDs or white LEDs (WLEDs). In an example embodiment, a boost DC to DC converter may be used with a single inductor to drive multiple outputs. In an example embodiment, the error voltage of each of the multiple outputs is sampled during each cycle of the DC to DC converter and the largest error voltage is determined for that cycle. Power from the DC to DC converter is then supplied to that output during that cycle.

Systems and methods of driving multiple outputs

The invention relates to an electronic device and a method for DC-DC conversion using a comparator for generating an output signal for driving a power switch of a switch mode DC-DC converter. The electronic device is configured to reduce a bias current of the comparator with a first slope in response to a decreasing load and to increase the bias current of the comparator with a second slope in response to an increasing load, wherein the second slope is steeper than the first slope.

Electronic device and method for DC-DC conversion with variable bias current

Power management circuitry (-) for converting a harvested voltage (V) to an output voltage (V) applied to a battery () includes an inductor (L) having a first terminal () coupled to receive the harvested voltage (V) and a second terminal coupled to a first terminal of a first switch (S). The power management circuitry transfers the current generated by an energy harvester () to the battery if it () is not fully charged, and shunts the current away from the battery () to avoid overcharging if it is fully charged.

Battery protection circuit and method for energy harvester circuit

A converter has a main feedback path and two auxiliary feedback paths from an output node to an auxiliary differential input pair of a comparator. The auxiliary feedback paths have different RC time constants so that a differential ramp signal is effectively applied to the auxiliary differential inputs of the comparator. The circuit design compensates for a negligibly small equivalent series resistor of an output capacitor so that modern capacitors may be used without compromising the stable oscillation of the converter.

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Munich, Germany

Kevin Scoones