Inductor over-current protection using a volt-second value representing an input voltage to a switching power converter

A method comprising:

• detecting an over-current condition of an inductor current in a switching power converter using a volt-second value that is representative of an input voltage to the switching power converter and a comparison of the volt-second value to a predetermined threshold value;
• accumulating a line input voltage to the switching power converter during a period of time when the inductor current is increasing and determine from an accumulation of the line input voltage if the inductor current has reached the over-current condition, wherein the input voltage to the switching power converter is the line input voltage;
• and
• after the period of time when the inductor current is increasing, accumulating a link voltage minus a final line input voltage accumulation value to determine if the switching power converter is operating in discontinuous conduction mode, wherein the final line input voltage accumulation value is the final value of the accumulation of the line input voltage prior to a period of time when the inductor current is decreasing.

A method comprising:

• detecting an over-current condition of an inductor current in a switching power converter using a volt-second value that is representative of an input voltage to the switching power converter and a comparison of the volt-second value to a predetermined threshold value, wherein an input voltage signal represents the input voltage to the switching power converter and a link voltage signal represents an output voltage of the switching power converter;
• accumulating the input voltage signal during an ON time of a power regulation switch of the switching power converter;
• determining if an accumulation value of the input voltage signal reaches an over-current threshold;
• turning the power regulation switch OFF if the accumulation value of the input voltage signal reaches the over-current threshold;
• accumulating previous values of the accumulation value and sampled differences between the input voltage signal and the link voltage signal to determine if the switching power converter is operating in continuous conduction mode;
• preventing the power regulation switch from conducting if the switching power converter is operating in continuous conduction mode;
• and
• causing the power regulation switch to conduct after the circuit detects the switching power converter exiting continuous conduction mode.