Current Ramping During Multiphase Current Regulation

摘要

Voltage regulators in a current share arrangement may provide a total current to a common load, and may be simultaneously turned on to ramp up member currents. Each voltage regulator may provide a respective member current in the current share configuration. A target current value may be determined from a cycle-averaged current value of the member currents and a voltage error value of the voltage regulator, and each member current may be ramped to the target current value instead of the cycle-averaged current value when the voltage regulators are turned on, resulting in more stable and balanced current ramping. A predictive multi-phase digital controller may therefore operate according to a target current determined based on a measured or inferred inductor current and an error voltage. Pulse-width, pulse position and pulse frequency (adding or skipping pulses) may be calculated according to the operation of the predictive multi-phase digital controller.

主权项

1. A method for ramping phase currents in a current share configuration, wherein the phase currents sum to a total current, the method comprising:
providing, by each voltage regulator module of a plurality of voltage regulator modules, a respective phase current in the current share configuration; determining, for each respective phase current, a target current value according to a cycle-averaged present value of the respective phase current and a voltage error value of the voltage regulator module providing the respective phase current; and ramping each phase current to the target current value responsive to instructing the plurality of voltage regulator modules to ramp their respective member currents.