Stmicroelectronics S.r.l.

Santo Ilardo

Francesco Pulvirenti

Claudio Adragna

Natale Aiello

Domenico Ragonese

Nicola Nigido

Salvatore Di Fazio

A driver circuit includes a temperature sensor generating a first voltage representative of current operating temperature. An amplifier compares the first voltage to a second voltage representative of an upper threshold operating temperature, and generates a control signal based thereupon. A variable current source generates a load current from the control signal. The amplifier generates the control signal to cause the variable current source to generate the load current as having a magnitude equal to an upper threshold when the first voltage is less than the second voltage. The amplifier generates the control signal to cause the variable current source to generate the load current as having a magnitude that is decreasing until the first and second voltages are equal, and then generates the control signal to cause the variable current source to maintain the load current magnitude at a level at which the first and second voltages are equal.

Temperature limited current driver

A low drop out voltage regulator includes an operational transconductance amplifier configured to be supplied with a supply voltage of the regulator, receive as inputs a reference voltage and a feedback voltage, and generate an intermediate current based upon a difference between the reference voltage and the feedback voltage. A current-to-voltage amplification stage is configured to be supplied with a boosted voltage greater than the supply voltage from a high voltage line, receive as input the intermediate current, and generate a driving voltage that is changed based upon the intermediate current. A pass transistor is controlled with the driving voltage to keep constant on a second conduction terminal thereof a regulated output voltage. A feedback network generates the feedback voltage based on the regulated output voltage.

Low drop out voltage regulator with operational transconductance amplifier and related method of generating a regulated voltage

A control device for a rectifier of a switching converter, the converter powered by an input voltage and suitable for providing an output current. The rectifier is suitable for rectifying an output current of the converter and includes at least one transistor. The control device is suitable for driving the at least one transistor. The control device has a first circuit suitable for identifying the start and the end of every converter switching half-cycle and measuring the duration thereof, a second circuit suitable for generating a signal for turning on the transistor after a given number of measured converter switching half-cycles and when the output current of the converter becomes greater than a reference current.

Control device for rectifiers of switching converters

A photovoltaic energy conversion system includes a distributed control structure for groups of cells of each multi-cellular panel, the components of which are entirely physically integrated in the photovoltaic panel. Each multi-cellular photovoltaic panel has a DC bus, supplied in parallel by a plurality of DC-DC converters, each provided with a controller that controls the working point of the photovoltaic cells coupled to the input of the DC-DC converter for a maximum yield of electric power by implementing a relatively simple MPPT algorithm. The controller includes a logic circuit and A/D converters of analog signals representing the input voltage and the input current generated by the group of cells that is coupled to the input of the DC-DC converter and optionally also of the output voltage of the converter, and a relatively simple D/A converter of the drive control signal of the power switch of the DC-DC converter.

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Catania, Italy

Santo Ilardo