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US 7,804,698 B2Granted
Switched capacitor controller and method therefor
AssigneeSemiconductor Components Industries, LLC
InventorRemi Gerber
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In one embodiment, a switch capacitor controller (20) is configured to use a drive signal (45) to drive the switched capacitor (26) with a signal having a time dependent transition time.
Claims17
A voltage regulator comprising:
- an input configured to receive a voltage from a battery;
- a capacitor having first and second terminals and configured to be selectively coupled between the input and a charging node to charge the capacitor and between the input and an output of the voltage regulator to supply current to the output;
- a first transistor operably coupled to selectively couple the first terminal of the capacitor to supply the current to the output of the voltage regulator;
- a second transistor operably coupled to selectively couple the second terminal of the capacitor to the input to supply the current to the output wherein the first transistor and the second transistor are enabled substantially simultaneously;
- and
- a first driver having an output stage configured to drive a control electrode of at least one of the first transistor or the second transistor with a drive signal having an edge that has a first time dependent transition time having a first time constant that is between about five and seventy-five percent of a frequency of a signal received by the driver and using the edge to enable one of the first transistor or the second transistor to operate in a linear operating mode during the transition time prior to fully enabling the switch after the transition time.
3 more elements
A method of forming a switched capacitor controller comprising:
- forming the switched capacitor controller to receive a dc voltage and switch a capacitor to form an output voltage from the dc voltage;
- operably coupling a first transistor to couple the capacitor to supply current to an output of the switched capacitor controller;
- operably coupling a second transistor of the switched capacitor controller to couple the capacitor to receive the dc voltage wherein the first and second transistors are enabled substantially simultaneously;
- and
- configuring a driver of the switched capacitor controller to form a drive signal that drives a control electrode of at least one of the first transistor or the second transistor wherein the driver forms the drive signal to have an edge with a transition time that has a time constant for enabling the switch that is between approximately three to seventy-five percent of a period of a frequency used to switch the capacitor and wherein the edge of the drive signal operates the switch in a linear operating region of the switch for the transition time prior to fully enabling the switch after the transition time.
2 more elements
A method of forming a switched capacitor controller comprising:
- configuring an output transistor of the switched capacitor controller to couple a capacitor to an output of the switched capacitor controller;
- and
- configuring the switched capacitor controller to drive a control electrode of the output transistor with a drive signal having a time dependent transition time wherein a transition time of the drive signal that is used to begin enabling the switch has a time constant that is between' about three to seventy-five percent of a frequency of a signal received by the driver wherein the switch is operated in a linear operating region during the transition time prior to the drive signal fully enabling the switch.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.