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:
Mar. 11, 2008
Filed:
Nov. 07, 2005
Chunping Song, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Tawen Mei, Mountain View, CA (US);
Chunping Song, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Tawen Mei, Mountain View, CA (US);
National Semiconductor Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A multi-phase regulator that provides a smooth transition between DCM and CCM by employing partially synchronous rectification in which a duty cycle of a synchronous switch enable signal is gradually increased to 100%. The regulator includes a separate inductor, high-side switch, and synchronous switch for each phase. The high-side switches are controlled based on a separate PWM signal for each phase. Each PWM signal is provided by pulse width modulating the error signal, with each of the PWM signals having a different phase. During the partially synchronous rectification, the synchronous switch turns on when the high-side switch is off and the synchronous switch enable signal is asserted, and the synchronous switch is off otherwise. The synchronous switch enable signal has a frequency relative to the frequency of each of the pulse width modulation output signal such that good current sharing among the inductors of each phase is achieved.