US 8,026,636 B2 · Apparatus and method for supplying power to electronic device

Abstract

An apparatus and method allows selection of either one of main power supplied from a battery and DC Output (DCO) power supplied from a DC/DC converter included in a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) as the input power of an LDO regulator and supply of the selected power to the LDO regulator. The voltage of the input power of the LDO regulator is as low as possible, thus to reduce power loss caused by the LDO regulator. Also, DCO power supplied from the DC/DC converter included in the PMIC is supplied to the LDO regulator as the input power, and if a load connected to the DC/DC converter is turned off, the DC/DC converter is variably controlled to reduce the voltage of the input power supplied to the LDO regulator to be as low as possible, to thus reduce power loss caused by the LDO regulator.

Claims17

Dependent claims

An apparatus for supplying power to an electronic device, the apparatus comprising:

a main power input;
a plurality of DC/DC converters having an input connected to the main power input and configured to output power to a plurality of first power-consuming loads;
a plurality of low dropout (LDO) regulators having an input connected to an output of the plurality of DC/DC converters, the plurality of LDO regulators configured to output converted power to a plurality of second power-consuming loads;
and
a controller operatively connected to the plurality of DC/DC converters, and the plurality of LDO regulators, the controller configured to variably control a supply of power from one of the plurality of DC/DC converters to one of the plurality of LDO regulators as an LDO regulator input power based on whether a corresponding one of the plurality of first power-consuming loads is off or will be turned on.

2 more elements

A method for supplying power by an apparatus to an electronic device having a plurality of DC/DC converters having an input connected to a main power input and configured to output power to a plurality of first power-consuming loads, and a plurality of low dropout (LDO) regulators having an input connected to an output of the plurality of DC/DC converters, the plurality of LDO regulators configured to output converted power to a plurality of second power-consuming loads, the method comprising:

variably controlling, by the apparatus, a supply of output power from one of the plurality of DC/DC converters to one of the plurality of LDO regulators as an LDO regulator input power based on whether a corresponding one of the plurality of first power-consuming loads is off or will be turned on.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Apparatus and method for supplying power to electronic device

Life of this patent

Apparatus and method for supplying power to electronic device

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims17