Voltage converters and methods to use therewith

• US 10,523,025 B2
• Filed: 08/28/2017
• Issued: 12/31/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intersil Americas LLC (Renesas Electronics Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Intersil Americas LLC (Renesas Electronics Corporation)
• Inventors: Houston, Michael Jason, Zhao, Lei
• Primary Examiner(s): Amrany, Adi
• Application Number:
  US15/688,398
• Publication Number:
  US 20180076641A1
• Time in Patent Office: 855 Days
• Field of Search: 307 31, 307112, 307116, 307125, 307139
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2207/20 Charging or discharging characterised by the power electronics converter
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/00 Circuit arrangements for ac mains or ac distribution networks
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00 Circuit arrangements for charging or depolarising batteries or for supplying loads from batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/0003 Details of control, feedback or regulation circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/007 Plural converter units in cascade push-pull DC/DC converters with pre-regulator H02M3/3374; DC-AC converters following a DC-DC stage including a high frequency transformer H02M7/4807; DC-AC converters following a DC-DC conversion stage generating periodically varying voltages H02M7/4826
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/14 Arrangements for reducing ripples from dc input or output
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/158 including plural semiconductor devices as final control devices for a single load
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/04 by static converters

Abstract

A voltage error signal is provided to a PWM controller of a voltage regular and used to produce a PWM signal that drives a power stage of the regulator. When operating in an adapter current limit regulation mode, an adapter current sense voltage, indicative of an adapter current, is compared to an adapter current reference voltage to produce an adapter current error signal. A compensator receives the adapter current error signal and outputs a compensated adapter current error signal. The adapter current sense voltage, or a high pass filtered version thereof, is subtracted from the compensated adapter current error signal to produce the voltage error signal provided to the PWM controller. Alternatively, an input voltage, or a high pass filtered version thereof, is added to the compensated adapter current error signal to produce the voltage error signal.

Claims

1. A voltage regulator for converting an input voltage from an adapter to an output voltage, comprising:

a PWM controller that generates a PWM signal for driving a power stage in accordance with an error signal; and

a feed forward loop including;

a comparator that compares an adapter current sense voltage, which is indicative of an adapter current, to an adapter current reference voltage to produce an adapter current error signal,

a compensator that receives the adapter current error signal and outputs a compensated adapter current error signal, and

a subtractor that subtracts the adapter current sense voltage, or a high pass filtered version thereof, from the compensated adapter current error signal to produce the error signal that is provided to the PWM controller.

2. The voltage regulator of claim 1, further comprising a high pass filter and a gain factor that produces the high pass filtered version of the adapter current sense voltage.

3. The voltage regulator of claim 1, further comprising:

an input LC filter that receives an adapter voltage from the adapter and in dependence thereon produces the input voltage;

an output LC filter that is coupled to an output of the power stage and outputs the output voltage for use in at least one of powering a load or charging a battery; and

an inner current feedback loop that substantially nulls out both a first complex double pole caused by the input LC filter and a second complex double pole caused by the output LC filter; and

wherein the feed forward loop regulates the adapter current and feeds forward the first complex double pole caused by the input LC filter, and

wherein the subtracting out of the adapter current sense voltage, or the high pass filtered version thereof, from the compensated adapter current error signal splits the complex double pole fed forward by the feed forward loop.

4. The voltage regulator of claim 3, wherein the splitting of the first complex double pole improves dynamic performance of the voltage regulator and simplifies compensation performed by the compensator, compared to if the first complex double pole were not split.

5. The voltage regulator of claim 1, wherein the voltage regulator comprises a narrow voltage direct current (NVDC) battery charger.

6. The voltage regulator of claim 1, wherein the power stage is one of a buck power stage, a boost power stage and a buck-boost power stage.

7. A voltage regulator for converting an input voltage from an adapter to an output voltage, comprising:

a PWM controller that generates a PWM signal for driving a power stage in accordance with an error signal; and

a feed forward loop, including;

a comparator that compares an adapter current sense voltage, which is indicative of an adapter current, to an adapter current reference voltage to produce an adapter current error signal,

a compensator that receives the adapter current error signal and outputs a compensated adapter current error signal, and

an adder that adds a signal representative of the input voltage, or a high pass filtered version thereof, to the compensated adapter current error signal to produce the error signal that is provided to the PWM controller.

8. The voltage regulator of claim 7, further comprising a high pass filter and a gain factor that produces the high pass filtered version of the input voltage.

9. The voltage regulator of claim 7, further comprising:

an input LC filter that receives an adapter voltage from the adapter and in dependence thereon produces the input voltage;

an output LC filter that is coupled to an output of the power stage and outputs the output voltage for use in at least one of powering a load or charging a battery;

an inner current feedback loop that substantially nulls out both a first complex double pole caused by the input LC filter and a second complex double pole caused by the output LC filter; and

wherein the feed forward loop regulates the adapter current and feeds forward the first complex double pole caused by the input LC filter, and

wherein the adding of the input voltage, or the high pass filtered version thereof, to the compensated adapter current error signal splits the complex double pole fed forward by the feed forward loop.

10. The voltage regulator of claim 9, wherein the splitting of the first complex double pole improves dynamic performance of the voltage regulator and simplifies compensation performed by the compensator, compared to if the first complex double pole were not split.

11. The voltage regulator of claim 7, wherein the voltage regulator comprises a narrow voltage direct current (NVDC) battery charger.

12. The voltage regulator of claim 7, wherein the power stage is one of a buck power stage, a boost power stage and a buck-boost power stage.