Multi-phase power supply with DC-DC converter integrated circuits having current sharing function
AssigneeChengdu Monolithic Power Systems Co., Ltd.
InventorsWanke Tao, Tianzhu Zhang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An interleaved multi-phase power supply with a plurality of DC-DC converter ICs. Each DC-DC converter IC has a current sharing pin, and the current sharing pins of the plurality of DC-DC converter ICs are connected together. Each DC-DC converter IC receives a feedback voltage signal to compare with a reference voltage signal to generate an error voltage signal as a reference of an output current of the corresponding DC-DC converter IC. And each DC-DC converter IC has a mismatch voltage regulation module regulating the error voltage signal to be equal to an average of error voltage signals of the plurality of DC-DC converter ICs.
Claims18
An interleaved multi-phase power supply, comprising:
- an input terminal, configured to receive an input voltage signal;
- an output terminal, configured to provide an output voltage signal;
- N DC-DC converter integrated circuits (ICs), coupled between the input terminal and the output terminal, wherein N is an integer larger than or equal to 2, and wherein each of the N DC-DC converter ICs comprises:
- an input pin, coupled to the input terminal to receive the input voltage signal;
- a switching pin, coupled to the output terminal;
- a feedback pin, configured to receive a feedback voltage signal indicative of the output voltage signal, wherein an error voltage signal is generated based on the feedback voltage signal, and wherein the error voltage signal is indicative of a difference of the feedback voltage signal and a reference voltage signal;
- a current sharing pin, wherein the current sharing pin of the respective N DC-DC converter ICs are connected together to generate an average voltage signal, and wherein the average voltage signal is indicative of an average of the N error voltage signals, and wherein the value of the average voltage signal is proportional to the average of the N error voltage signals;
- a power stage, configured to convert the input voltage signal to a switching voltage signal on the switching pin;
- and
- a mismatch voltage regulation module, coupled between the feedback pin and the current sharing pin, and configured to regulate the error voltage signal to be equal to the average of the N error voltage signals.
A DC-DC converter integrated circuits (IC) for an interleaved multi-phase power supply, wherein the interleaved multi-phase power supply comprises N DC-DC converter ICs connected in parallel, comprising:
- an input pin, configured to receive the input voltage signal;
- a switching pin, configured to provide a switching voltage, and coupled to an output terminal of the interleaved multi-phase power supply;
- a feedback pin, configured to receive a feedback voltage signal indicative of an output voltage signal of the interleaved multi-phase power supply, wherein the feedback voltage signal is configured to generate an error voltage signal indicative of a difference of the feedback voltage signal and a reference voltage signal;
- a current sharing pin, wherein N current sharing pins of the N DC-DC converter ICs are connected together to generate an average voltage signal on the current sharing pin, and wherein the average voltage signal is indicative of an average of N error voltage signals;
- and
- a mismatch voltage regulation module, coupled between the feedback pin and the current sharing pin, and configured to regulate the error voltage signal to be equal to the average of N error voltage signals.
A current sharing control method for an interleaved multi-phase power supply having N DC-DC converter integrated circuits (ICs), wherein the N DC-DC converter ICs are connected in parallel between an input terminal of the interleaved multi-phase power supply and an output terminal of the interleaved multi-phase power supply, and wherein each of the N DC-DC converter ICs comprises a current sharing pin, comprising:
- generating a feedback voltage signal indicative of an output voltage signal of the interleaved multi-phase power supply;
- generating N error voltage signals, wherein each of the N error signals is indicative of a difference of the feedback voltage signal and a reference voltage signal of the corresponding DC-DC converter IC;
- generating N mismatch voltage signals, wherein each of the N mismatch voltage signals is proportional to the corresponding error voltage signal, and wherein each of the N mismatch voltage signals and the corresponding error voltage signal has a first proportional coefficient;
- connecting current sharing pins of the N DC-DC converter ICs together to generate an average voltage signal based on the N mismatch voltage signals, wherein the value of the average voltage signal is proportional to an average of the N error voltage signals, and wherein the value of the average voltage signal and the average of the N error voltage signals has a second proportional coefficient, and wherein the first proportional coefficient is equal to the second proportional coefficient;
- regulating each of the N error voltage signals to be equal to the average of N error voltage signals;
- and
- regulating an output current signal of the corresponding DC-DC converter IC based on the corresponding error voltage signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.