Multi-phase power converter and control circuit and method thereof
AssigneeRichtek Technology Corporation, R.O.C.
InventorsChing-Jan Chen, Chun-Shih Huang, Kuo-Lung Tseng, Dan Chen
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Abstract
The present invention discloses a multi-phase power converter, and a control circuit and a control method of the multi-phase power converter. The multi-phase power converter comprises multiple power conversion phases. The method comprises: determining whether to enter a phase-shedding mode; at a first time when entering the phase-shedding mode, disabling at least one of the power conversion phases; and at another time when entering the phase-shedding mode, disabling at least another one of the power conversion phases.
Claims14
A multi-phase power converter comprising:
- multiple power conversion phases;
- and
- a control circuit determining whether one or more of the multiple power conversion phases are in operation, wherein the control circuit does not always disable the same power conversion phase when the multi-phase power converter enters a phase-shedding mode.
A method of controlling a multi-phase power converter, the multi-phase power converter including multiple power conversion phases, the method comprising:
- determining whether to enter a phase-shedding mode;
- at a first time when entering the phase-shedding mode, disabling at least one of the power conversion phases;
- and
- at another time when entering the phase-shedding mode, disabling at least another one of the multiple power conversion phases, but not disabling the at least one power conversion phase which is disabled at the first time.
A control circuit of a multi-phase power converter, the multi-phase power converter including multiple power conversion phases, the control circuit comprising:
- a gate driver control circuit generating driver signals for driving the multiple power conversion phases to perform a power conversion operation, respectively;
- and
- a phase selection circuit coupled to the gate driver control circuit, the phase selection circuit determining whether to enter a phase-shedding mode according to a phase control signal;
- at a first time when entering the phase-shedding mode, the gate driver control circuit disabling at least one of the multiple power conversion phases;
- and at another time when entering the phase-shedding mode, the gate driver control circuit disabling at least another one of the multiple power conversion phases, but not disabling the at least one power conversion phase which is disabled at the first time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.