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US 2006/0139015 A1Published application
Switching power supply transient suppression
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorJames Dinh
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A number of output phases of a switching power supply are controlled, to regulate its output. An under-voltage condition is responded to, by overriding the control of the output phases, forcing some or all of the phases on, depending on a detected magnitude of a change in the power supply load. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
Claims22
A method for operating a switching power supply, comprising:
- controlling a plurality of output phases of a switching power supply to regulate its output;
- and
- responding to an under-voltage condition in the regulated output by overriding the control of the output phases, forcing some or all of the phases on, depending on a detected magnitude of a change in the power supply load.
A method for operating a power supply, comprising:
- switching a plurality of output phases of a power supply in accordance with a main voltage regulation control loop;
- and
- overriding the main voltage regulation control loop in accordance with a transient suppression control loop which turns on a fewer number of the phases to suppress a transient if the transient exhibits a small power supply output voltage slope, and a greater number of the phases if the transient exhibits a large slope.
A switching power supply comprising:
- a converter having a plurality of output phases;
- and
- an output transient suppression circuit coupled to the converter and having a voltage slope detector and converter phase select circuitry,
- the slope detector having an input coupled to an output of the converter and an output coupled to an input of the converter phase select circuitry, wherein the phase select circuitry is to provide a plurality of override signals that indicate which of the output phases are to be forced on under control of the slope detector, wherein the signals are to indicate that more of the output phases be forced on if a detected voltage slope is larger.
1 more element
A system comprising:
- a switching power supply having a plurality of output phases, phase override circuitry, and transient suppression circuitry that is to measure a negative slope of an output voltage of the power supply, and assert a first pulse signal to the phase override circuitry if the measured slope is low and a second pulse signal to the phase override circuitry if the measured slope is high, and wherein a total pulse width of each of the first and second signals is a function of the measured slope;
- and
- a multi-core chip processor having a core voltage input coupled to an output of the power supply.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.