Infineon Technologies Ag

Vratislav Michal

Emanuele Bodano

Joachim Pichler

Matteo Agostinelli

Volha Kharko Subotskaya

Nicolo Zilio

Kyrylo Cherniak

A power stage of a voltage converter, including: a series capacitor having a first terminal coupled to a first switch node; a pair of second high-side switches coupled in series between a second switch node and a second terminal of the series capacitor; and a bias switch coupled between the first switch node and a middle node between the second high-side switches, wherein during operation, a voltage across each of the second high-side switches and the bias switch is less than a supply voltage.

Voltage converter power stage

A circuit having a power converter configured to convert an input voltage to an output voltage; a controller having an inner loop configured to regulate a peak inductor current of an inductor of the power converter to a reference peak inductor current value; and an inductor value measurement circuit configured to determine a value of the inductor based on the output voltage of the power converter and the reference peak inductor current value.

Inductor value determination for power converter

A power stage having a power transistor coupled between a power supply and a switching node; a charge pump coupled between the power supply and a gate of the power transistor; and a gate driver configured to charge the gate of the power transistor until the gate voltage reaches a predefined voltage, and further charge the gate of the power transistor from the charge pump.

Power stage with sequential power transistor gate charging

A circuit topology and switching scheme for a circuit that includes an input voltage divider configured to provide a divided voltage that may be approximately half of a supply voltage. The circuit also includes a switching circuit with a first half-bridge that includes a first switching node and a second half-bridge that includes a second switching node. One or more switches are configured to connect the divided voltage to the first switching node and the second switching node.

Circuit with an input voltage divider and two half-bridges

A method for sensing an output current of a Direct Current-to-Direct Current (DC/DC) converter having an external power stage configured to supply a converted current to an external inductor. During a calibration phase at a first start-up of the DC/DC converter: the method includes injecting a calibration current through a switching node of the power stage and through the inductor; and determining a calibration gain of the DC/DC converter to compensate for DC Resistance (DCR) variation by comparing a gain-adjusted voltage across the inductor with a reference voltage. During a measurement phase, the method includes reducing ripple voltage of a switching voltage at the switching node to generate a ripple-reduced switching voltage; and sensing the output current based on a DCR-compensated voltage across the inductor, which is a difference between the ripple-reduced switching voltage and an output voltage of the DC/DC converter with compensation for the DCR variation based on the calibration gain.

Output current sensing for DC/DC converter with external power stage

A circuit to detect body diode conduction in a switch with an adaptive dead-time scheme for a switched mode power supply. The body-diode of a first switch entering conduction means the first switch is OFF and a second switch can be turned ON. The body diode conduction detector circuit (BDCD) uses relative analysis of the switching node voltage (V). The BDCD circuit acts as a voltage follower in a first phase and a comparator in a second phase. The BDCD circuit tracks Vduring the first phase and samples and holds V+V=Vat the end of the first phase. During the second phase, the BDCD circuit compares V+Vto V. When the body-diode of the first switch enters conduction Vwill become negative and V+Vwill drop below V, and toggle the logic level output of the comparator.

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Villach, Austria

Vratislav Michal