Maxim Integrated Products, Inc.

Apple Inc.

Vincent W Trimeloni

Antonio Magazzu

Armando Presti

Sunil M Akre

Ivo Pannizzo

Suresh B Kariyadan

A module stack includes a lower module, a middle module above the lower module, and an upper module above the middle module. The lower module has power stage control circuitry configured to convert a PWM input signal into phase driver control signals, and power stages to be controlled by the phase driver control signals, respectively. The middle module has phase inductors each having a respective winding and a respective magnetic core. The respective winding has one end joined to a respective one of the power stages in the lower module and another end joined to a common node in the middle module. The upper module has a current sense resistor that has one end joined to the common node in the middle module and another end joined to an output node in the upper module. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

Multi-phase switching power converter module stack

The present invention relates to a voltage converter based on a switching regulator, and more particularly, to systems, devices and methods of dynamically controlling an output of the voltage converter to rapidly transition between different power supply voltages as required in many electronic devices. The switching regulator generates an output supply voltage that tracks a voltage originally provided by an internal DAC. During the supply voltage variation, a step control signal is provided to introduce a supplemental voltage step into the reference voltage before the reference voltage is used to generate the output supply voltage. The switching regulator is thereby overdriven under this supplemental voltage step, enhancing the slew rate and the settling time of the output supply voltage to meet stringent requirements imposed by many electronic devices.

Voltage transition technique for a voltage converter

Various embodiments of the invention provide extend the switching frequency range of DC/DC multiphase switching regulators in order to overcome prior art frequency limitations in the number of available phases, for example, in low input to output ratio applications. In certain embodiments, this is accomplished by enabling partial overlap between multiple phases using asynchronous logic. The invention is easily scalable without introducing significant silicon area penalties.

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Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Vincent W Trimeloni