Systems and methods for DC-to-DC converter control

摘要

A regulated, power supply system is described using multiphase DC-DC converters with dynamic fast-turnon, slow-turnoff phase shedding, early phase turn-on, and both load-voltage and drive-transistor feedback to pulsewidth modulators to provide fast response to load transients. In an embodiment, a system master can automatically determine whether all, or only some, slave phase units are fully populated. The programmable system includes fault detection with current and voltage sensing, telemetry capability, and automatic shutdown capability. In an embodiment, these are buck-type converters with or without coupled inductors, however some of the embodiments illustrated include boost configurations.

主权项

1. A DC-to-DC converter for converting an input voltage to an output voltage, comprising:
N slave integrated circuit chips, N being a positive integer, each slave integrated circuit chip including:
a first switching device electrically coupled between a power node and a switching node,a slave control configured to receive a control signal and to cause the first switching device to switch between a conductive and a non-conductive state in response to the control signal, anda reconstructor circuit configured to generate a current sense signal representing current flowing through at least the first switching device of the slave integrated circuit chip, the reconstructor circuit including:
a positive reference transistor electrically coupled between the power node and a positive reference node,a negative reference transistor electrically coupled between the switching node and a negative reference node, andcircuitry configured to generate the current sense signal at least in part by controlling magnitude of current flowing through the positive reference transistor and by controlling magnitude of current flowing through the negative reference transistor, such that a voltage at the positive reference node is equal to a voltage at the negative reference node,wherein each of the positive and negative reference transistors is configured to switch between a conductive and a non-conductive state in synchronicity with the first switching device; N energy storage inductors, each energy storage inductor electrically coupled to the switching node of a respective slave integrated circuit chip; and a master integrated circuit chip communicatively coupled to the slave control and to the reconstructor circuit of each slave integrated circuit chip, the master integrated circuit chip configured to generate a respective control signal for each slave integrated circuit chip.