ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD FOR DC-DC CONVERSION

• US 20120098512A1
• Filed: 10/11/2011
• Published: 04/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Kirchner, Joerg
• Granted Patent: US 8,866,450 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 323/284
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/07 using capacitors charged and discharged alternately by semiconductor devices with control electrode , e.g. charge pumps
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/156 with automatic control of output voltage or current, e.g. switching regulators

Abstract

An electronic device for DC-DC conversion including a feedback loop coupled at one side to the inductor for measuring a current through the inductor with a series of an auxiliary capacitor and an auxiliary resistor, a transconductance stage coupled to the auxiliary capacitor for generating a current proportional to a voltage drop across the auxiliary capacitor, wherein the electronic device further includes a ramp resistor coupled to the output of the transconductance stage for generating a ramp voltage across the ramp resistor and a comparator receiving at a first input the ramp voltage, wherein the output of the comparator is coupled to a gate driving stage for driving a power transistor coupled with a control gate to the gate driving stage and with a channel to a switching node of the electronic device.

Claims

1. An electronic device for DC-DC conversion comprising:

a feedback loop coupled at one side to the inductor for measuring a current through the inductor by a series of an auxiliary capacitor and an auxiliary resistor;

a transconductance stage coupled to the auxiliary capacitor for generating a current proportional to a voltage drop across the auxiliary capacitor, wherein the electronic device further comprises a ramp resistor coupled to the output of the transconductance stage for generating a ramp voltage across the ramp resistor and a comparator receiving at a first input the ramp voltage, wherein the output of the comparator is coupled to a gate driving stage for driving a power transistor being coupled with a control gate to the gate driving stage and with a channel to a switching node of the electronic device.

2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the transconductance stage comprises a current source coupled to a current minor and a first transistor coupled to a first side of the current mirror and to the auxiliary capacitor and a second transistor coupled to the first side of the auxiliary capacitor and to the second side of the auxiliary capacitor and a second side of the current mirror and wherein the ramp resistor is fed with a current output from the current minor.

3. The electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising an error amplifier, a compensation capacitor and a compensation resistor being part of voltage control loop for the DC-DC converter, and a switch, wherein the compensation capacitor and the compensation resistor are coupled in series to the output node of the error amplifier which is coupled to a second input of the comparator and wherein the switch is configured to selectively feed the ramp voltage to the node between the compensation capacitor and the compensation resistor during startup of the DC-DC converter.

4. The electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising an error amplifier, a compensation capacitor and a compensation resistor being part of voltage control loop for the DC-DC converter, and a switch, wherein the compensation capacitor and the compensation resistor are coupled in series to the output node of the error amplifier which is coupled to a second input of the comparator and wherein the switch is configured to selectively feed the ramp voltage to the node between the compensation capacitor and the compensation resistor during startup of the DC-DC converter.

5. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the ON-time can then be calculated as:

6. The electronic device of claim 5, wherein the frequency can be calculated as:

7. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein an ideal hysteresis for a constant frequency operation would be:

8. A method of performing DC-DC conversion, comprising the steps of:

measuring a voltage drop across auxiliary capacitance which is coupled in series with an auxiliary resistor and the series of the auxiliary capacitance and the auxiliary resistor are coupled in parallel to an inductor;

generating a current as a function of the voltage drop across the auxiliary capacitor;

feeding the current to a ramp resistor, comparing the voltage drop across the ramp resistor with a reference voltage being indicative of an output voltage of the DC-DC conversion; and

using the comparison result for switching a power transistor used for the DC-DC conversion.