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US 11,146,167 B1Granted
Current detection for an adiabatic power converter
AssigneepSemi Corporation
InventorWalid Fouad Mohamed Aboueldahab
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AssigneepSemi Corporation
InventorWalid Fouad Mohamed Aboueldahab
Estimating the term…
Over-current detection circuits and methods for adiabatic power converters that provide numerous advantages over known solutions, including simple digital control, enabling trimming to be done in the low voltage domain, and avoidance of high-voltage sense current mirrors. Embodiments include a slope detector circuit configured to measure a slope of the immediate output voltage VX of an adiabatic power converter during a charge pump clock cycle, compare the measured slope to a pre-determined value representing a slope of an over-current condition, and assert a flag if comparison indicates an over-current condition. An auto-calibration circuit may be included which presents a set of known loads across the output of an adiabatic power converter at device startup, measures the resulting counts from the slope detector counter, and extrapolates to a count that corresponds to a maximum allowed current.
A current detection circuit configured to be coupled to an adiabatic power converter, including a slope detector circuit configured to be coupled to an immediate output voltage of the adiabatic power converter, and configured to measure a slope of the immediate output voltage during a charge pump clock cycle, compare the measured slope to a pre-determined value representing a slope of an over-current condition, and assert an over-current flag signal if the comparison indicates an over-current condition.
An adiabatic power converter including:
A method for current detection in an adiabatic power converter, including:
A method for current detection in an adiabatic power converter, including:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.