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US 2024/0405671 A1Published application
Voltage converters using a switch capacitor voltage converter
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsChi-Hsiang HUANG, Su Hwan KIM, Harish KRISHNAMURTHY
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Abstract
Voltage converters using switch capacitor voltage converters are described. In some implementations, a hybrid converter having a switch capacitor voltage converter coupled with a downstream second voltage converter such as a buck regulator or LDO is described. It may incorporate circuitry for reducing output offset from the switch cap converter, which in turn, may reduce voltages exposed to switch transistors used in the downstream voltage regulator.
Claims20
An apparatus, comprising:
- a switch capacitor (SC) converter circuit having an input to receive an input voltage, an SC output to provide an SC output voltage, and nodes to couple a flying capacitor to be switchably coupled between the input and SC output to transfer charge to the SC output to provide the SC output voltage;
- and
- switch control circuitry including discharge control circuitry coupled to the SC output to discharge the flying capacitor in response to the SC output voltage reaching a reference voltage level.
An apparatus, comprising:
- a voltage regulator circuit having an input coupled to a switch capacitor voltage converter (SCVC) output (SC output) to receive an SC output voltage from an SCVC that includes first phase switches and second phase switches;
- and
- switch control circuitry to control the first and second phase switches and including discharge control circuitry to limit the SC output voltage.
An apparatus, comprising:
- a processor formed from one or more processor chips coupled to one another and having a plurality of power domains;
- and
- a hybrid step-down DC-DC converter to provide power to the processor, the hybrid converter including:
- a switch capacitor (SC) voltage converter including an input to receive an input voltage, an SC output to provide a stepped-down SC output voltage from the input voltage, and first phase switches and second phase switches to control a flying capacitor to generate the SC output voltage;
- a voltage regulator circuit having an input coupled to the SC output and a VR output to provide a regulated output voltage to the processor;
- and
- switch control circuitry including discharge control circuitry coupled to the SC converter to discharge the flying capacitor in response to the SC output voltage reaching a reference voltage level.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.