Multi-phase voltage converter with individual phase temperature reporting
AssigneeMonolithic Power Systems, Inc.
InventorsChiahsin Chang, Chao Liu, James Nguyen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A multi-phase voltage converter has a plurality of integrated circuits (ICs), and a controller. Each IC has a temperature report pin and a temperature sensing circuit, the controller has a temperature input pin connected to the temperature report pin of each of the plurality of ICs. The controller provides an acquiring command via the temperature input pin to all of the ICs. The acquiring command is capable of selecting one of the plurality of ICs to report an individual temperature.
Claims20
A multi-phase voltage converter, comprising:
- a plurality of integrated circuits (ICs) that each provides a phase of the multi-phase voltage converter, each of the plurality of ICs comprising a temperature report pin, and a temperature sensing circuit that is configured to sense an individual temperature of an IC containing the temperature sensing circuit, and the temperature report pin is configured to receive an acquiring command and report the individual temperature;
- and
- a controller, comprising a temperature input pin, the temperature input pin is coupled to the temperature report pin of each of the plurality of ICs, the controller is configured to provide the acquiring command via the temperature input pin to all of the plurality of ICs;
- wherein
- the acquiring command is capable of selecting one of the plurality of ICs to report the individual temperature.
An integrated circuit (IC) providing a phase of a multi-phase voltage converter, the IC comprising:
- a power supply pin, configured to receive an input voltage;
- a power switch, configured to be turned ON and OFF to convert the input voltage to an output voltage;
- and
- a temperature report pin, coupled to a plurality of ICs that are connected together, the temperature report pin is capable of receiving an acquiring command and reporting an individual temperature of the IC;
- wherein
- the IC has a sequencing code, and the temperature report pin is configured to report and stop reporting the individual temperature in response to the acquiring command and the sequencing code.
A controller for a multi-phase voltage converter, comprising:
- a temperature input pin, coupled to a plurality of integrated circuits (IC) to provide an acquiring command and receive a temperature monitoring signal, each of the plurality of ICs provides a phase of the multi-phase voltage converter;
- and
- a plurality of switching control pins, configured to provide a plurality of switching control signals to control the plurality of ICs respectively;
- wherein
- the acquiring command is capable of selecting one of the plurality of ICs to provide the temperature monitoring signal representative of an individual temperature of the one of the plurality of ICs.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.