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. 09, 2018
Filed:
Sep. 05, 2014
Intersil Americas Llc, Milpitas, CA (US);
Nicholas Archibald, San Francisco, CA (US);
INTERSIL AMERICAS LLC, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
An embodiment of a power-supply controller includes a switching circuit and a transition circuit. The switching circuit is configured to generate a regulated output voltage by generating first current pulses at an approximately fixed frequency during a first mode, and generating second current pulses at a variable frequency during a second mode. And the transition circuit is configured to transition the switching circuitry from the first mode to the second mode in response to a length of one of the first current pulses. For example, a power supply may include such a power-supply controller to transition the supply from a PWM mode to a PFM mode under light-load conditions. To cause this transition at a predictable load point, the controller may monitor the lengths of the current pulses during the PWM mode, and may transition the supply to a PFM mode in response to the lengths being below a threshold.