Linear Technology Corporation

Analog Devices International Unlimited Company

Linear Technology Holding LLC

Robert Chiacchia

Gregory Jon Manlove

Kalin Valeriev Lazarov

Andrew J Gardner

Michael David Petersen

Robert C Dobkin

Jian Li

Michael B Anderson

Edson Wayne Porter

Yi Ding Gu

Bernhard Helmut Engl

Wan Wah Loh

Hellmuth Stephen Witte

Srikanth Govindarajulu

James McKenzie

A system current sensor module can accurately sense or measure system current flowing through a sense current resistor by shunting current through a gain-setting resistor and using an amplifier to measure a resulting voltage, with an output transistor controlled by the amplifier controlling current through the gain setting resistor in a manner that tends to keep the amplifier inputs at the same voltage. The resistors can be thermally coupled to maintain similar temperatures when a system current is flowing. The thermal coupling can include conducting heat from a first resistor layer carrying the current sense resistor to a thermal cage layer located beyond a second resistor layer carrying the gain-setting resistor. This preserves accuracy, including during aging.

Low temperature coefficient current sensor

A ripple monitoring circuit may generate information indicative of a failing component in a power supply. At least one input may receive a ripple signal from the power supply that has a ripple component. A quantization circuit may repeatedly quantize the amplitude of the ripple component. A ripple amplitude statistics counter bank may count and store the number of times that different quantized amplitudes or different ranges of quantized amplitudes of the ripple component occurred. A ripple monitoring circuit may generate information about a power supply. At least one input may receive a ripple signal from the power supply that has a ripple component. A ripple measurement circuit may measure a characteristic of the ripple component. A storage circuit may store information about the measurement. A comparison circuit may compare information stored in the storage circuit with a threshold value and indicate when the stored information meets or exceeds this threshold value.

Ripple monitoring

In a system and method for correcting a stress-impaired signal in a circuit, a calibration circuit produces a first calibrated voltage based on a base-emitter voltage of one or more pnp transistors, a second calibrated voltage based on a base-emitter voltage of one or more npn transistors, and a voltage proportional to absolute temperature. A set of reference values are generated based on these voltages. A gain correction factor is calculated based on a function of the set of reference values and a set of temperature-dependent values, and the stress-impaired signal is corrected based on the gain correction factor.

Reference signal correction circuit

A current mode switching regulator circuit and operating method includes a variable duty cycle power switch controller, a voltage feedback loop that provides a feedback signal based on the output voltage, a current feedback loop that provides a current sense signal based on the output current, and an offset circuit having an external signal input and coupled to the current feedback loop. The power switch controller controls the switching regulator circuit to generate an output voltage and an output current. The offset circuit is configured to provide an offset output control signal, independently of the voltage feedback loop, to control the power switch controller so as to vary a duty cycle of the power switch controller based on the current sense signal and an external offset signal applied to the external signal input.

Current mode switching regulator and operating method with offset circuitry to emulate a transient load step response

A current sensor is disclosed. The current sensor includes a leadframe having a die paddle, a portion of the die paddle being configured as a resistive element through which current can flow, and an integrated circuit (IC) die attached and thermally coupled to the die paddle. The IC die includes a current sensing module configured to measure a voltage drop across the resistive element and convert the voltage drop measurement to a current measurement signal and a temperature compensation module electrically coupled to the current sensing module. The temperature compensation module is configured to adjust the current measurement signal to compensate for temperature-dependent changes in the resistive element. The temperature compensation module includes a temperature-sensitive element, with a portion of the temperature-sensitive element located directly over a portion of the resistive element.

Current sensor using leadframe as sensing element

An efficiency measuring circuit may measure the efficiency of a DC-DC converter having a switching inductor with an internal DC resistance and a plurality of electronic switches that control current through the inductor. A duty cycle circuit may measure the duty cycle of current flowing through one of the electronic switches. A current sense circuit may measure the current flowing through one of the electronic switches. An inductor voltage sensor circuit may measure the voltage across the inductor. A computation circuit may compute the internal DC resistance of the switching inductor based in part on the duty cycle measured by the duty cycle circuit and the current measured by the current sense circuit. The computation circuit may also compute the efficiency of the DC-DC converter.

Efficiency measuring circuit for DC-DC converter which calculates internal resistance of switching inductor based on duty cycle

Methods and apparatus for sampling an input voltage and apparatus incorporating the same are disclosed. An input voltage sampling apparatus includes a voltage sampling circuit coupled to the input voltage and configured to produce a sampled input voltage at an output terminal, and a voltage charging circuit coupled to the voltage sampling device and producing a first charged voltage on a first charged voltage output terminal and a second charged voltage on a second charged voltage output terminal. A voltage charging enabling circuit is coupled to the voltage charging circuit, the voltage sampling device via the first connection, and a power supply voltage. Further, the input voltage sampling apparatus includes a control circuit coupled to the voltage sampling circuit, the voltage charging circuit, and the power supply voltage, ground, third and fourth pulse signals. The first and third pulse signals are non-overlapping with the second and fourth pulse signals. The first pulse signal is delayed on the rising edge of the third pulse signal and the second pulse signal is delayed on the rising edge of the fourth pulse signal. The voltage sampling apparatus is capable of sampling an input voltage that is higher than the power supply voltage.

Bootstrapped switch for sampling voltages beyond the supply voltage

A bandgap voltage reference circuit having temperature curvature correction, comprises a bandgap voltage source configured to generate an output voltage, and a novel curvature correction circuit. The correction circuit is responsive to the bandgap voltage source output voltage and connected to apply a curvature correction signal to the bandgap voltage source to compensate for output voltage temperature dependency of the bandgap voltage source.

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Colorado Springs, CO, United States of America

Robert Chiacchia