Apple Inc.

Sarfraz Shaikh

Vincenzo Bisogno

Francesco Griseta

Debashish Mahapatra

Shawn Searles

Jay B Fletcher

Sanjay Pant

Hao Zhou

Mark A Yoshimoto

Deepesh H Kamani

Carlos Andre Faria Calisto

A power converter circuit included in a computer system that regulated a power supply voltage used by other circuits in the computer system. The power converter includes a primary control circuit that selectively activates multiple phase circuits coupled to respective driver circuits, which are coupled to a power supply node via respective inductors. Some of the driver circuits are located on a separate integrated circuit from the primary control circuit and the multiple phase circuits.

Multi-phase power converter with external driver

A reconfigurable multi-phase power converter is disclosed. An apparatus comprises a first primary power converter configured to generate a first regulated supply voltage to a first regulated supply voltage node and a second primary power converter configured to generate a second regulated supply voltage to a second regulated supply voltage node. The apparatus further includes N secondary power converters, wherein N is an integer value of one or more, and a multiplexer circuit configured to select the at least one of the N secondary power converters to provide an output current to one of the first or second regulated supply voltage nodes.

Reconfigurable multi-phase power converter

A power management circuit included in a computer system regulates a voltage level of a power supply node used by other circuits in the computer system. The power management circuit includes a control circuit and multiple phase circuits coupled to the regulated power supply node via corresponding inductors. The control circuit selectively activates particular ones of the multiple phase circuits allowing them source respective currents to the regulated power supply node. The control circuit also selectively activates particular ones of other phase circuits that are external to the power management circuit and coupled to the regulated power supply node via their own corresponding inductors. Once activated, the external phase circuits source respective currents to the regulated power supply node via their corresponding inductors.

Multi-phase power converter with external phase circuits

Growing community of inventors

Swindon, United Kingdom

Sarfraz Shaikh