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:
May. 22, 2018
Filed:
May. 11, 2017
Linear Technology Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Hezekiel D. Randolph, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Min Chen, Fremont, CA (US);
Niranjan G. Kumar, San Jose, CA (US);
Linear Technology Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
In the example of a voltage regulator outputting a negative voltage, its feedback voltage will also be negative. The feedback voltage is typically created using a resistor divider. A controller IC is powered by only a positive voltage and receives the negative feedback voltage at a high impedance input of an inverting amplifier. Therefore, the inverting amplifier does not load the resistor divider, resulting in an accurate regulated output voltage. The inverting amplifier converts the negative feedback voltage to a positive feedback voltage for further processing by the controller IC. An error amplifier and a power good monitor receive both the original feedback voltage and the inverted feedback voltage and use whichever feedback voltage is the more positive one. Therefore, the controller IC may be used in voltage regulators that generate either negative or positive output voltages.