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:
Nov. 01, 2016
Filed:
Mar. 05, 2014
Tower Semiconductor Ltd., Migdal Haemek, IL;
Alexander Faingersh, Bat Shlomo, IL;
Erez Sarig, Kadima, IL;
Tower Semiconductor Ltd., Migdal Haemek, IL;
Abstract
A soft-start circuit for a switching regulator (e.g., a buck converter) in which the soft-start circuit supplies a DC ramp voltage to the switch regulator's pre-driver such that the pulsed gate voltage supplied to power switch during the initial soft-start operating phase includes a series of pulses having amplitudes that respectively gradually change (e.g., sequentially increase from 0V to the system operating voltage), whereby the regulated output voltage passed from the power switch to the load is gradually increased at a rate that prevents voltage overshoot and inrush current. The DC ramp voltage is generated, for example, by a current source that begins charging a capacitor at the beginning of the initial soft-start operating phase. This arrangement allows a constant-frequency ramp signal generated by a single oscillator to be shared by multiple switch regulators that are fabricated on an IC chip.