Configuration Method For A Power Supply Controller And A Controller Employing Same

• US 20180292874A1
• Filed: 06/11/2018
• Published: 10/11/2018
• 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
• Granted Patent: US 10,474,210 B2
• Time in Patent Office: 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. An integrated circuit for controlling a DC-DC switching power converter, the integrated circuit comprising:

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

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

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

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

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

a configuration pin for connection 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 for 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 to select a configuration table to be employed by the integrated circuit.

2. An integrated circuit according to claim 1, further comprising at least one serial communications pin for communicating serially with other devices.

3. An integrated circuit according to claim 2, wherein the configuration settings may be set by data transmitted serially to the integrated circuit using the serial communications pin.

4. An integrated circuit according to claim 3, wherein the configuration settings are preset with factory settings and updatable using data transmitted serially to the integrated circuit using the serial communications pin.

5. An integrated circuit according to claim 1, wherein the single configuration resistor is intended to be one of a series of standard resistor values.

6. An integrated circuit according to claim 4, wherein the series of standard resistor values includes at least the values of 2200 ohms, 3300 ohms, 4700 ohms and 5600 ohms.

7. An integrated circuit according to claim 1, further comprising at least one temperature sense pin for receiving a temperature measurement for DC-DC switching power converter.

8. An integrated circuit according to claim 1, wherein one of the parameters is output voltage ramp delay from when the integrated circuit is enabled.

9. An integrated circuit according to claim 1, wherein one of the parameters is an output voltage rise time from when the integrated circuit is enabled.

10. An integrated circuit according to claim 1, wherein one of the parameters is an input voltage over-voltage protection threshold.