Configuration method for a power supply controller and a controller employing same

• US 10,474,210 B2
• Filed: 06/11/2018
• Issued: 11/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ROHM Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Rohm Powervation Limited (ROHM Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Rinne, Karl, Russell, Antoin
• Primary Examiner(s): Bahta, Kidest
• Application Number:
  US16/005,543
• Publication Number:
  US 20180292874A1
• Time in Patent Office: 519 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/156 with automatic control of output voltage or current, e.g. switching regulators

Abstract

The present application is directed at pin programming od controllers for power converters and provides for the programming of a plurality of different controller parameters using a single programming resistor. The value of the programming resistor is used as a pointer to select a table storing a plurality of different settings for the controller.

Claims

1. A DC-DC switching power converter controller for controlling a controller, the controller being packaged within an integrated circuit, the integrated circuit comprising a plurality of pins making external connections from the integrated circuit, the plurality of pins comprising:

a voltage sense pin sensing the output voltage of the DC-DC switching power converter;

a configuration pin and a first pulse width modulator (PWM) pin;

the integrated circuit further comprising;

an analog to digital converter converting the voltage sensed at the voltage sense pin to a digital sensed voltage;

a first controller providing an output control signal in responsive to the digital sensed voltage;

a first pulse width modulator responsive to the output control signal to provide a first PWM output signal at the first PWM pin;

a non-volatile memory (NVM) storing at least four configuration tables, each configuration table in turn comprising values for at least four parameters employed by the first controller;

a configuration pin connecting to a first end of a single configuration resistor, the second end of the configuration resistor being connectable to a ground voltage;

a measurement circuit making a measurement of the resistance of the single configuration resistor at the configuration pin;

a second controller using the resistance measurement of the single configuration resistor as a sole input to select a configuration table to be employed by the integrated circuit.

2. The DC-DC switching power converter controller of claim 1, wherein the integrated circuit further comprises at least one serial communications pin for communicating serially with other devices.

3. The DC-DC switching power converter controller of claim 2, wherein the configuration settings are set by data received serially by the integrated circuit at the serial communications pin.

4. The DC-DC switching power converter controller of claim 3, wherein the values in the configuration tables are preset with factory settings and updatable using data transmitted serially to the integrated circuit using the serial communications pin.

5. The DC-DC switching power converter controller of claim 1, wherein the value of the single configuration resistor is selected from a series of standard resistor values.

6. The DC-DC switching power converter controller of claim 5, wherein the series of standard resistor values includes at least the values of 2200 ohms, 3300 ohms, 4700 ohms and 5600 ohms.

7. The DC-DC switching power converter controller of claim 1, further comprising at least one temperature sense pin receiving a temperature measurement for DC-DC switching power converter.

8. The DC-DC switching power converter controller of claim 1, wherein one of the parameters is output voltage ramp delay from when the integrated circuit is enabled.

9. The DC-DC switching power converter controller of claim 1, wherein one of the parameters is an output voltage rise time from when the integrated circuit is enabled.

10. The DC-DC switching power converter controller of claim 1, wherein one of the parameters is an input voltage over-voltage protection threshold.