Intel Corporation

Sally Safwat Amin

Harish Krishnamurthy

Vaibhav Vaidya

Christopher Schaef

Sergio Carlo

A stacked voltage regulator (VR) that pre-charges inductor switching node to mitigate EOS. The stacked VR comprises at least three n-type devices (low-side) and three p-type devices (high-side) coupled in series. The three p-type stacked devices are part of a high-side of the VR. Node Vx coupling one of the n-type devices and one of the p-type devices is coupled to an inductor, which is also coupled to a load capacitor. During the inductor charging phase, in the low-to-high transition, a small p-type device is added to pre-charge the inductor switching node (V) from '0' to “VDD−Vth” through the low-side by connecting a generated mid-rail “Vdd” to the internal node of the n-type stack for a short period (e.g., about 50 ps). A controlled conductance modulation (CCM) scheme on the high-side top switch during the inductor charging phase is used to mitigate the ringing without controlling the gate drive strength.

Stacked buck converter with inductor switching node pre-charge and conduction modulation control

Some embodiments include apparatus and methods for using a switch to couple an inductor to an energy harvester for a time interval to allow charging of the inductor during the time interval, and using a circuit to generate control information for power management. A value of the control information is based on a value of the time interval.

Energy harvester power indicator and power management circuitry

A power regulator includes a plurality of harvester switches, each coupled to receive a separate energy source, a plurality of load switches, each coupled to supply power to a separate load, an inductor to store energy received from one or more energy sources and release the energy to supply the power to one or more loads and a controller to control charging of the inductor via activation of one or more of the harvester switches and discharging of the inductor via activation of one or more of the load switches.

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Hillsboro, OR, United States of America

Sally Safwat Amin