The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 28, 2004
Filed:
May. 15, 2003
Patrick Kevin Egan, Rochester, MN (US);
Steven Dennis Keidl, Rochester, MN (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A plurality of regulator phases are connected in parallel between a regulator input and a regulator output, each phase including a regulator receiving an input voltage and providing an output voltage. A multi-phase controller is coupled to each of the plurality of regulator phases, where one or more phases are provided for enabling redundancy. The multi-phase controller receives a feedback output voltage and a respective detected current signal from each of the plurality of regulator phases. The multi-phase controller generates control signals to sequentially activate each of the plurality of regulator phases for predetermined periods of time to generate controlled current sharing between phases. To achieve redundancy at a phase level, each of the plurality of regulator phases includes an output ORing device to limit reverse current flow into each phase and an input protection device for providing input over current protection and output over voltage protection of each phase. A current sharing method maintains current sharing between the active phases after a failure of one or more phases with one or more phases provided for enabling redundancy.