MULTIPHASE TRANSFORMER FOR A MULTIPHASE DC-DC CONVERTER

• US 20130113444A1
• Filed: 12/26/2012
• Published: 05/09/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Schrom, Gerhard, Hazucha, Peter, Lee, Jaeseo, Karnik, Tanay, De, Vivek K., Paillet, Fabrice
• Granted Patent: US 8,994,344 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 323/247
• CPC Class Codes: G05F 1/468 characterised by reference voltage circuitry, e.g. soft start, remote shutdown
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/14 Arrangements for reducing ripples from dc input or output
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/068 mounted on a transformer

Abstract

A multiphase DC-DC converter is provided that includes a multiphase transformer, the multiphase transformer including a plurality of input voltage terminals and an transformer output voltage terminal, each input voltage terminal associated with a corresponding phase. Each phase is assigned to an input voltage terminal of the plurality of input voltage terminals to minimize a ripple current at the input voltage terminals of the multiphase transformer.

Claims

1. A multiphase DC-DC converter comprising:

a multiphase transformer having a plurality of input voltage terminals;

a first bridge, coupled to the multiphase transformer, to assign a first phase, from a plurality of phases, to a first terminal of the plurality of input voltage terminals; and

a second bridge, coupled to the multiphase transformer, to assign a second phase, from the plurality of phases, to a second terminal of the plurality of input voltage terminals when total number of number of phases is odd.

2. The multiphase DC-DC converter of claim 1 further comprises a third bridge, coupled to the multiphase transformer, to assign a third phase, from the plurality of phases, to a third terminal of the plurality of input voltage terminals when the total number of phases is even.

3. The multiphase DC-DC converter of claim 1 further comprises:

an output voltage terminal coupled to another output voltage terminal of another multiphase DC-DC converter; and

a capacitor coupled to the output voltage terminal.

4. The multiphase DC-DC converter of claim 3, wherein the other multiphase DC-DC converter is in parallel to the multiphase DC-DC converter.

5. The multiphase DC-DC converter of claim of 1, wherein the multiphase transformer is one of:

multiphase transformer with cyclic cascade topology;

multiphase transformer with mixed cyclic cascade topology;

or

multiphase transformer with modified cyclic cascade topology.

6. The multiphase DC-DC converter of claim of 5, wherein the multiphase transformer with cyclic cascade topology, multiphase transformer with mixed cyclic cascade topology, and multiphase transformer with mixed cyclic cascade topology include two-phase transformers.

7. The multiphase DC-DC converter of claim of 6, wherein the two-phase transformers are arranged in at least two columns to reduce parasitic resistance between the two-phase transformers.

8. The multiphase DC-DC converter of claim of 5, wherein the multiphase transformer with cyclic cascade topology has odd number of phases.

9. The multiphase DC-DC converter of claim of 5, wherein the multiphase transformer with mixed cyclic cascade topology has even number of phases.

10. The multiphase DC-DC converter of claim of 5, wherein the multiphase transformer with modified cyclic cascade topology has odd number of phases.

11. The multiphase DC-DC converter of claim 1, wherein the multiphase transformer comprises directly-coupled inductors with equal number of windings made on a common core.

12. The multiphase DC-DC converter of claim 11, wherein the directly-coupled inductors are integrated on a semiconductor die.

13. The multiphase DC-DC converter of claim 1, wherein the first, second, and third bridges apply pulse width modulation (PWM).

14. The multiphase DC-DC converter of claim 1 further comprises a shuffle circuit coupled to the plurality of input voltage terminals and the first, second, and third bridges to enable programmability of assignment of phases to the multiphase transformer.

15. An integrated circuit comprising:

a processor having multiple processing cores; and

a plurality of voltage regulators, each of which to provide a corresponding regulated power supply voltage to a corresponding processing core from among the multiple processing cores, wherein each voltage regulator comprises;

a multiphase transformer having a plurality of input voltage terminals;

a first bridge, coupled to the multiphase transformer, to assign a first phase, from a plurality of phases, to a first terminal of the plurality of input voltage terminals; and

a second bridge, coupled to the multiphase transformer, to assign a second phase, from the plurality of phases, to a second terminal of the plurality of input voltage terminals when a total number of phases is odd.

16. The integrated circuit of claim of 15, wherein the multiphase transformer is one of:

multiphase transformer with cyclic cascade topology;

multiphase transformer with mixed cyclic cascade topology;

or

multiphase transformer with modified cyclic cascade topology.

17. A multiphase DC-DC converter comprising:

a first bridge to assign a first phase to a first terminal of a plurality of input voltage terminals of a multiphase transformer;

a second bridge to assign a second phase, the second phase is next to the first phase in time sequence, to a second terminal of a plurality of input voltage terminals when a total number of phases is odd; and

a third bridge to assign a third phase, the third phase is next to the second phase in the time sequence, to a third terminal of the plurality of input voltage terminals when the total number of phases is even.

18. The integrated circuit of claim of 17, wherein the multiphase transformer is one of:

multiphase transformer with cyclic cascade topology;

multiphase transformer with mixed cyclic cascade topology;

or

multiphase transformer with modified cyclic cascade topology.

20. The voltage regulator of claim 18, wherein the multiphase transformer is one of:

multiphase transformer with cyclic cascade topology;

multiphase transformer with mixed cyclic cascade topology;

or

multiphase transformer with modified cyclic cascade topology.

19. A voltage regulator comprising:

a multiphase transformer having a plurality of input voltage terminals;

a first bridge, coupled to the multiphase transformer, to assign a first phase, from a plurality of phases, to a first terminal of the plurality of input voltage terminals;

a second bridge, coupled to the multiphase transformer, to assign a second phase, from the plurality of phases, to a second terminal of the plurality of input voltage terminals when a total number of phases is odd; and

a shuffle circuit, coupled to the plurality of input voltage terminals and the first and second bridges, to enable programmability of assignment of the first and second phases to the first and second input voltage terminals.