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:
Jan. 12, 2010
Filed:
Aug. 25, 2006
Sang Hoon Kim, Grayslake, IL (US);
Sang Hoon Kim, Grayslake, IL (US);
Micrel, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A synchronous switching regulator controller incorporates a switch detection circuit to determine the presence or absence of a power switch at the output of a switch driver so that the switch driver can be disabled when it is left unused. In one embodiment, the synchronous controller includes a switch detection circuit receiving a power cycle signal and the PWM ramp clock signal and measuring a voltage at an output node of the switch driver. The switch detection circuit provides a driver enable signal in response to the assertion of the power cycle signal. The driver enable signal has a first logical state when the voltage at the output node of the switch driver is greater than a reference voltage and a second logical state when the voltage at the output node is less than a reference voltage. The switch driver can be disabled based on the driver enable signal.