Volterra Semiconductor Corporation

Paul H Choi

Sombuddha Chakraborty

Anthony J Stratakos

Ilija Jergovic

Andrew J Burstein

Michael D McJimsey

Trey Roessig

Giovanni Garcea

Jingquan Chen

Luigi Panseri

Andrea Pizzutelli

Biljana Beronja

Yali Xiong

Theodore Vinko Burmas

A method for controlling a DC-to-DC converter includes: (a) regulating a magnitude of an output voltage of the DC-to-DC converter according to a magnitude of a reference voltage; (b) in response to a command to enter the unregulated operating mode, allowing the magnitude of the output voltage to fall; and (c) adjusting the magnitude of the reference voltage to track the magnitude of the output voltage. A controller for a DC-to-DC converter includes reference and switching modules. The reference module generates a reference voltage, such that: (a) a magnitude of the reference voltage is fixed, in a regulated operating mode, and (b) the magnitude of the reference voltage tracks a magnitude of an output voltage of the DC-to-DC converter, in the unregulated operating mode. The switching module controls a power stage of the DC-to-DC converter to regulate the magnitude of the output voltage, in the regulated operating mode.

Systems and methods for controlling DC-to-DC converters including unregulated operating modes

A regulated, power supply system is described using multiphase DC-DC converters with dynamic fast-turnon, slow-turnoff phase shedding, early phase turn-on, and both load-voltage and drive-transistor feedback to pulsewidth modulators to provide fast response to load transients. In an embodiment, a system master can automatically determine whether all, or only some, slave phase units are fully populated. The programmable system includes fault detection with current and voltage sensing, telemetry capability, and automatic shutdown capability. In an embodiment, these are buck-type converters with or without coupled inductors, however some of the embodiments illustrated include boost configurations.

Systems and methods for DC-to-DC converter control

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San Ramon, CA, United States of America

Paul H Choi