Infineon Technologies Austria Ag

International Rectifier Corporation

Infineon Technologies Americas Corp.

Applied Micro Circuits Corporation

Venkat Sreenivas

Robert T Carroll

Benjamim Tang

Bikiran Goswami

James Noon

Todd Bellefeuille

Gary D Martin

Kang Peng

Amir Babazadeh

Zhiqing You

David R Lewis

Lawrence Spaziani

Tim Ng

Parviz Parto

Richard Pierson

Ravi Subrahmanyan

James R Garrett

David Williams

Anthony B Candage

Charles P Amirault

Saurabh Jayawant

Timothy M Starr

Timothy Starr

A multi-phase controller includes a summer circuit configured to sense a plurality of phase currents generated by a plurality of power stages and generate a summed current value representative of a total current generated by the plurality of power stages; and a current limit controller configurable in a current-limit mode or a non-current-limit mode based on the summed current value and configured to limit the total current to a predefined value during the current-limit mode. The current limit controller includes a threshold selector circuit and a mode configuration circuit. The threshold selector circuit selects a first threshold or a second threshold as a selected threshold based on a configuration signal. The mode configuration circuit monitors a duration during which a comparison result indicates that the summed current value satisfies the selected threshold, and generates the configuration signal based on whether the first duration satisfies a duration threshold.

Dynamic total current control for a voltage regulator

An apparatus may include a regulated power converter, a control engine configured to control the regulated power converter based upon a regulation control parameter, a period detection system and a parameter control system. The period detection system may be configured to monitor a signal to detect transient events at an output of the regulated power converter, wherein the transient events include a first transient event and a second transient event after the first transient event. The period detection system may be configured to determine, in response to the second transient event, a transient event period between the first transient event and the second transient event. The period detection system may be configured to determine transient event period information based upon the transient event period. The parameter control system may be configured to set the regulation control parameter to a value determined based upon the transient event period information.

Method and apparatus for period detection-based control of regulation control parameter

An apparatus includes a controller that monitors an error voltage indicating a difference between an output voltage and a setpoint voltage. Based on the monitored error voltage, the controller generates modulation adjustment signals including a frequency adjustment signal and an ON-time adjustment signal. The controller generates a pulse width modulation signal of a first power supply phase in accordance with both the frequency modulation adjustment signal and the ON-time adjustment signal.

Power supply configurations and non-linear control, switching period adjustment and current control based on error signal

An apparatus includes a controller a current mode controller that produces an output voltage by supplying output current from at least one power supply phase of a power supply to power a load. The controller produces an error current signal based on a difference between a magnitude of the output current supplied from the power supply to a load and a phase current setpoint. Based on a magnitude of the error current signal, control a pulse width setting of a pulse width modulation signal controlling the at least one power supply phase. The controller varies a leading edge and a falling edge of a pulse width ON-time of the pulse width modulation signal over each of multiple control cycles depending on variations in the magnitude of the pulse width setting.

Power supply configurations and PWM edge control

An apparatus may include a regulated power converter, a control engine configured to control the regulated power converter based upon a regulation control parameter, and a parameter control system. The parameter control system may be configured to detect a transient event at an output of the regulated power converter. The parameter control system may be configured to modify, in response to the transient event, the regulation control parameter from a first value to a second value based upon a parameter modification profile. The parameter control system may be configured to modify, in response to modifying the regulation control parameter from the first value to the second value, the regulation control parameter according to a function of the parameter modification profile. The function may define a return of the regulation control parameter from the second value to the first value over a period of time.

Method and apparatus for adaptive control of regulation control parameter

An apparatus includes a soft start manager such as implemented via hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. The soft start manager receives input parameter from a power supply; the input parameter (such as output voltage, duty cycle, input voltage, etc.) is associated with conversion of the input voltage into an output voltage that powers a load. The soft start manager monitors a magnitude of the input parameter. Based at least in part on the magnitude of the input parameter, the soft start manager controls a switching period applied to switch circuitry in the power supply.

Power supply monitoring and switching control

An apparatus comprises an emulator and a corresponding compensator. During operation, the emulator produces, at different instants of time, an emulated output current value representative of an amount of current supplied from an output voltage to a load. In general, the compensator provides selective compensation to the emulated output current value over time. For example, for a first time duration, compensation adjustments from the compensator are used to modify the emulated output current value. For a second duration of time, compensation adjustments from the compensator are not used to modify the emulated output current value. Disabling or discontinuing application of adjustments (such as based on the actual measured output current) during the second time duration (such as during a respective transient condition) provides more accurate and timely generation of a respective emulated output current value.

Current emulation in a power supply

An apparatus includes a current emulator and a controller. The emulator receives a reference output current value representing a measured average amount of output current delivered by the voltage converter to the load for a first portion of a power delivery cycle during which high side switch circuitry and low side switch circuitry in the voltage converter are activated at different times to produce the output current. The power delivery cycle includes a second portion during which the high side switch circuitry and the low side switch circuitry of the voltage converter are deactivated. Via trial and error, the emulator derives an average output current value delivered to the load for the power delivery cycle based on the reference output current value and repeated adjustments to the estimation of the average output current. The controller controls operation of the voltage converter based on the derived average output current value.

Current estimation in a power supply

An apparatus includes a controller that monitors an error voltage indicating a difference between an output voltage and a setpoint voltage. Based on the monitored error voltage, the controller generates modulation adjustment signals including a frequency adjustment signal and an ON-time adjustment signal. The controller modulates a pulse width modulation signal of a first power supply phase in accordance with both the frequency modulation adjustment signal and the ON-time adjustment signal.

Multi-dimensional pulse width modulation control

An apparatus includes a filter to receive a signal indicating a magnitude of current supplied by an output voltage to power a dynamic load. The filter produces a filtered signal from the received signal. A reference voltage generator generates a target setpoint voltage based on the filtered signal. The target setpoint voltage is used to control (such as regulate) a magnitude of the output voltage. The apparatus further includes a filter controller to dynamically change operational settings of the filter. For example, the filter controller reduces the bandwidth of filtering the signal in response to detecting that: i) the magnitude of the output voltage falls below an output voltage threshold value, and ii) the magnitude of a received VID value is greater than a VID threshold value.

Power supply, filter control, and dynamic adaptive voltage positioning

An apparatus includes a power converter and a controller. The power converter converts a received input voltage into an output voltage that powers a dynamic load. The controller controls a setting of a switching frequency applied to the power converter. During one operational mode, the controller transitions a setting of the switching frequency of the power converter from a first clock frequency signal to a second clock frequency signal depending on occurrence of phase alignment of the second clock frequency signal and the first clock frequency signal, which may eventually occur over multiple switching control cycles. Transition of the switching frequency from the first clock frequency signal to the second clock frequency signal at or around a time of the phase alignment reduces possible perturbations in the output voltage as a result of the clock frequency switchover.

Frequency alignment and switch-over in power supplies

A power converter circuit includes multiple phases and controller circuitry. The multiple phases collectively operate to produce an output voltage to power a load. The controller circuitry monitors an output voltage and produces control information to control the multiple phases. Controller circuitry in each respective phase of the multiple phases processes the control information independently with respect to other phases to determine whether to output a quantum of energy to maintain regulation of the output voltage. In one arrangement, the control information provides general information indicating, such as for each control cycle, how much current is needed to supply to a load to maintain the output voltage. In a specific arrangement, identities of the phases are randomized over each of multiple cycles so that randomly chosen, but an appropriate number of phases is activated to supply current to the load.

Multiphase power supply and distributed phase control

According to example configurations herein, a controller is operated in a control mode (such as a high-speed control mode) in which the controller controls multiple phases in the power supply to produce an output voltage. The output voltage produced by the controller supplies current to power a dynamic load. While in the (high-speed current balance) control mode, the controller: i) produces, for each of the multiple phases, a respective current value representative of an estimated amount of current supplied by that phase to the dynamic load; and ii) modifies an order of activating the phases based on magnitudes of respective estimated current values produced for the multiple phases.

Current balancing in a multi-phase power supply

A semi-resonant voltage converter has a synchronous rectification (SR) switch through which a half-cycle sinusoidal-like current is conducted when turned on. An embodiment of a method of controlling operation of the semi-resonant voltage converter includes switching the SR switch and other switches of the semi-resonant voltage converter via a linear controller so as to supply output power to a load, the semi-resonant voltage converter having a DC gain that increases when load current increases, and scaling downward an output of the linear controller used to control the switching of the SR switch responsive to the load current exceeding a first threshold, so as to at least partly counteract an increase in the DC gain of the semi-resonant voltage converter. Other control adaptation methods are also described.

Method and apparatus for control adaptation in resonant-tapped inductor converters

A multi-phase power supply circuit includes at least a first phase and a second phase (such as semi-resonant DC-DC power converter circuits), each of which output current to power a load. The first phase includes a first inductor device through which first current is delivered to the load. The second phase includes a second inductor device through which second current is delivered to the load. A current monitor circuit of the multi-phase power supply circuit is operable to monitor current through the second inductor device. Control circuitry of the multi-phase power supply circuit is operable to adjust timing of activating a control switch in the second phase to an ON state based on the monitored current. Timing of the phases is adjusted to achieve a common switching and zero current switching amongst the phases.

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Winchester, MA, United States of America

Venkat Sreenivas