Potentia Semiconductor Corporation

Muge Guher

David Alan Brown

Power supplies are enabled and disabled in sequence by a controller in dependence upon output voltages of the power supplies monitored by the controller. The controller allows proper sequencing of the power supplies when one or more of them is provided on a daughter board, when this is not connected to a mother board on which the controller is provided, by storing information as to any power supply provided on the daughter board, detecting when the daughter board is not connected to the mother board, and in that case enabling the power supplies in sequence independently of any monitored output voltage of such a power supply on the daughter board.

Sequencing power supplies on daughter boards

A digital controller for a DC converter has a timing and control unit which produces a control pulse signal with varying duty cycle and frequency in accordance with pulse on- and off-times determined by digital values read from a look-up table addressed via an A-D converter in dependence upon an input voltage for the DC converter. The stored digital values are such that a period of the control pulse signal varies over a range of about two-thirds to about four-thirds of a nominal value. Closed loop feedback control can be added by modifying addressing of the look-up in dependence upon an error signal from the DC converter output voltage, with scaling depending on the input voltage.

Digital controllers for DC converters

Power supplies are enabled and disabled in sequence in dependence upon monitored output voltages of, and an input voltage for, the power supplies. Bits stored in registers for each power supply represent the predetermined sequences in which the power supplies are enabled and disabled, and fault dependencies for the power supplies. The sequences can include independent, linear, divergent, and convergent paths. The registers are loaded from a non-volatile memory on power-up of a power supply controller also powered from the input voltage.

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Ottawa, Canada

Muge Guher