Texas Instruments Corporation

Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation

Thomas N Mathes

Larry J Wofford

Jon Gladish

Michael Thomas Madigan

Sean T Tarlton

Michael T Madigan

One embodiment provides A DC-DC converter system that includes a high side switch and a low side switch coupled to a power supply, each switch is configured to transition from an on state to an off state and from an off state to an on state to deliver current to an inductor and a load. This embodiment also includes low side driver circuitry configured to control the conduction state of the low side switch and configured to drive the low side switch with a first gate driving signal during a first mode of operation and with a second gate driving signal during a second mode of operation. The first gate driving voltage is stronger than the second gate driving signal and the second gate driving signal is configured to cause a slower switch transition of the low side switch compared to the first gate drive control signal.

Synchronous buck converter with dynamically adjustable low side gate driver

A system and method are disclosed to limit a maximum duty cycle and/or provide a volt-second clamp for a pulse-width modulated (PWM) signal. Depending on the circuit topology, this approach can limit the absolute duty cycle or operate as a volt-second clamp in which the duty cycle is limited as a function of a variable input control voltage, such as a line voltage. The duty cycle can be selectively programmed by setting one or more external reference components, such as one or more respective resistors. Additionally, through component matching, desired clamping can be achieved with a high level of accuracy.

System and method to limit maximum duty cycle and/or provide a maximum volt-second clamp

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Cary, NC, United States of America

Thomas N Mathes