MULTIPHASE POWER CONVERSION USING SKEWED PER-PHASE INDUCTOR CURRENT LIMITS
First Claim
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1. A switching power conversion circuit comprising:
- a plurality of phases, wherein each of the phases has an inductor coupled to a power switch circuit, the plurality of phases each being coupled to an output node; and
a power conversion controller coupled to control switching of one or more of the phases to yield a regulated voltage on the output node, and wherein the controller uses a variable inductor current limit for one or more of the phases and temporarily increases the variable inductor current limit during a transient condition.
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Abstract
A power conversion circuit has multiple phases wherein each of the phases has an inductor coupled to a power switch circuit and is coupled to an output node. A power conversion controller controls the switching of one or more of the phases to yield a regulated voltage on the output node. The controller uses a variable inductor current limit for one or more designated phases, and temporarily increases the variable inductor current limit during a transient condition. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A switching power conversion circuit comprising:
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a plurality of phases, wherein each of the phases has an inductor coupled to a power switch circuit, the plurality of phases each being coupled to an output node; and a power conversion controller coupled to control switching of one or more of the phases to yield a regulated voltage on the output node, and wherein the controller uses a variable inductor current limit for one or more of the phases and temporarily increases the variable inductor current limit during a transient condition. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A power management circuit comprising:
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a switching voltage regulator controller having a plurality of phase control outputs, the controller to operate in a normal control mode to yield a regulated voltage on an output node associated with the phase control outputs, the controller increases an inductor current limit of one or more of the phases when changing from the normal control mode to a transient control mode so that said one or more of the phases has a different inductor current limit than that of another. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for providing a regulated voltage, comprising:
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performing switching control of a plurality of phase currents that are feeding an output node, while the output node exhibits a regulated voltage and one of the phase currents remains at or below its normal limit; and performing switching control of the plurality of phase currents, while a) the output node exhibits a transient voltage drop due to a load change and, simultaneously, b) said one of the phase currents goes above its normal limit. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
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20. A battery powered portable electronic device comprising:
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a housing having installed therein a data processor having a power supply input; a battery; and a dc-dc multi-phase switching power converter having an input coupled to the battery, an output coupled to the power supply input of the data processor, a plurality of phases of which at least one is a designated phase that has lower inductance and higher inductor saturation current than another one of the phases, and a switch mode power conversion controller having a variable inductor current limit for the designated phase, wherein the controller temporarily raises the variable inductor current limit for the designated phase, during a transient voltage drop at the output, and then lowers the variable inductor current limit once the transient voltage drop has passed. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22)
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Specification