US 8,148,960 B2Granted

Voltage regulator circuit

AssigneeRenesas Electronics Corporation

InventorFumio Tonomura

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Abstract

It is desired for semiconductor devices to reduce an inrush current and an overshoot. According to the voltage regulator circuit of the present invention, when a power supply is turned on, a switch SW1 is turned on in response to a control signal CTR1, a switch SW2 is turned off, and a reference voltage Vref is input to the first (+IN) and second (−IN) inputs of a differential amplifier AMP1 as a common voltage. When a common voltage is supplied to the first (+IN) and second (−IN) inputs, the current I flows into a smoothing capacitor C1 from the high-voltage power supply (VDD) via the differential amplifier AMP1 is regulated to be small. Namely, an inrush current can be reduced. Further, according to the voltage regulator circuit 30 of the present invention, the increase of the output voltage Vout from the differential amplifier AMP1 is relaxed so that the overshoot can be suppressed.

Claims10

Dependent claims

A voltage regulator circuit comprising:

a differential amplifier circuit, a reference voltage is supplied to a first input of the differential amplifier circuit, and a smoothing capacitor is connected to an output of the differential amplifier circuit;
a first resistor element whose one end is connected to the output of the differential amplifier circuit;
a second resistor element whose one end is connected to another end of the first resistor element;
a first switch, one end of the first switch is connected to the first input of the differential amplifier circuit, another end of the first switch is connected to a second input of the differential amplifier circuit, and the first switch is configured to be turned on in response to a first control signal;
a second switch, an end of the second switch is connected to the second input of the differential amplifier circuit, another end of the second switch is connected to the second resistor element, and the second switch is turned on in response to a second control signal;
and
a switch control circuit configured to output the first control signal in a predetermined period from a power supply is turned on, and to output the second control signal after the predetermined period.

4 more elements

An operation control method of a voltage regulator circuit, wherein the voltage regulator circuit comprises:

a differential amplifier circuit, a reference voltage is supplied to a first input of the differential amplifier, and an output of the differential amplifier circuit is connected to a smoothing capacitor;
a first resistor element whose first end is connected to the output of the differential amplifier circuit;
a second resistor element whose one end is connected to another end of the first resistor element, and
the operation control method comprises:
connecting a first input and a second input of the differential amplifier circuit to each other in a predetermined period from a power supply is turned on;
and
connecting the second input of the differential amplifier circuit and the one end of the second resistor element.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/662,371Filed 13 Apr 2010
Priority: JP 2009-10296421 Apr 2009
Published: US 2010/0264896 A121 Oct 2010
Granted: 3 Apr 2012
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification2 codes

G05F 1/569
Sensing a condition of the system or its load in addition to means responsive to deviations in the output of the system, e.g. current, voltage,…:…
G05F
Systems for regulating electric or magnetic variables

Family

US 2010/0264896 A1Pre-grant publication · published 21 Oct 2010
US 8,148,960 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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