High-efficiency DC/DC voltage converter including capacitive switching pre-converter and down inductive switching post-regulator
AssigneeAdvanced Analogic Technologies, Inc.
InventorRichard K. Williams
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A DC/DC converter includes a pre-converter stage, which may include a charge pump, and a post-regulator stage, which may include a Buck converter. The duty factor of the post-regulator stage is controlled by a feedback path that extends from the output terminal of the DC/DC converter to an input terminal in the post-regulator stage. The pre-converter steps the input DC voltage up or down by a positive or negative integral or fractional value, and the post-regulator steps the voltage down by a variable amount depending on the duty factor at which the post-regulator is driven. The converter overcomes the problems of noise glitches, poor regulation, and instability, even near unity input-to-output voltage conversion ratios.
Claims27
A DC/DC voltage converter comprising:
- a pre-converter comprising a switched capacitive circuit, the switched capacitive circuit comprising at least one capacitor, a terminal of the at least one capacitor being coupled through a first switch to an input terminal of the pre-converter and through a second switch to a reference voltage;
- and
- a post-regulator comprising a switched inductive circuit;
- wherein an output terminal of the pre-converter is coupled to an input terminal of the post-regulator, an input terminal of the DC/DC voltage converter comprises the input terminal of the pre-converter, and an output terminal of the DC/DC voltage converter comprises an output terminal of the post-regulator;
- and
- wherein the post-regulator is adapted to produce a voltage at the output terminal of the post-regulator that is lower in absolute value than a voltage at the input terminal of the post-regulator.
A DC/DC voltage converter comprising:
- a pre-converter, the pre-converter comprising a charge pump, the charge pump producing an output voltage equal to a predetermined multiple of an input voltage;
- a post-regulator comprising a switched inductive circuit;
- wherein an output terminal of the pre-converter is coupled to an input terminal of the post-regulator, an input terminal of the DC/DC voltage converter comprises an input terminal of the pre-converter, and an output terminal of the DC/DC voltage converter comprises an output terminal of the post-regulator;
- and
- wherein the post-regulator is adapted to produce a voltage at the output terminal of the post-regulator that is lower in absolute value than a voltage at the input terminal of the post-regulator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.