Power-One Limited

Mahesh Natverlal Thaker

Alain Chapuis

A system and method is provided for determining a voltage output of a programmable power converter based on programming voltage data received from one of a variety of alternate sources. Specifically, in one embodiment of the present invention, a control unit is adapted to monitor a digital data serial interface, a digital data parallel interface, and an analog data interface to determine whether programming voltage data has been received. If programming voltage data has been received, the data is used to determine an output voltage for the programmable power converter. If more than one set of programming voltage data has been received, a determination is made as to which set of data takes priority. The selected set of data is then used to determine an output voltage for the programmable power converter.

Voltage set point control scheme

A system and method is provided for using a point-on-load ('POL') control unit to program and/or monitor a POL regulator. Specifically, in one embodiment of the present invention, a power supply controller is adapted to provide initial-configuration data to at least one POL regulator. A POL control unit (located within the POL regulator) then stores at least a portion of the initial-configuration data in a storage device and uses at least a portion of the initial-configuration data to produce an output. The POL control unit is further adapted to store fault-monitoring data in the storage device and provide at least a portion of the fault-monitoring data to the controller. If the provided portion violates a known parameter, the controller (or POL control unit) may respond by perform a particular action (e.g., disable the POL regulator, etc.). In another embodiment of the present invention, the POL regulator further includes at least one sensor circuit adapted to produce fault monitoring data, or data that can be used to determine the fault-monitoring data. In another embodiment of the invention, the initial-configuration data and the fault-monitoring data are transmitted over a serial data bus.

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Moorpark, CA, United States of America

Mahesh Natverlal Thaker