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US 9,312,835 B2Granted
Load switch controller with slew rate control
AssigneeQUALCOMM Incorporated
InventorsCrown Sen Shieh, Abid Hussain, Thomas J O'Brien
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A power control device can generate control signals to control operation of power sources. Additional control signals control operation of load switches that can be connected to the power sources to provide secondary sources of power. The load switches can be turned in a gradual manner at rates that depend on the power sources to which they are connected. The outputs of the load switches can be monitored for overvoltage and undervoltage conditions relative to the power sources to which they are connected.
Claims21
A circuit comprising:
- a voltage reference generator having a plurality of voltage reference outputs, each voltage reference output having a selectable voltage level;
- a plurality of primary power controllers, each primary power controller connected to receive a voltage reference level from one of the voltage reference outputs of the voltage reference generator, each primary power controller operative to generate switcher control signals configured to control operation of a switcher circuit to produce an output voltage that is referenced to the voltage reference level;
- a plurality of secondary power controllers, each secondary power controller being associated with one of the primary power controllers, each secondary power controller operative to generate a load switch control signal configured to control a load switch to produce an output voltage based on the voltage reference level of the associated primary power controller;
- and
- a slew rate controller operative to generate a slew rate control signal, the slew rate control signal provided to each secondary power controller, wherein the slew rate control signal determines a slew rate of the output voltage of a given secondary power controller.
2 more elements
An integrated circuit device comprising:
- first circuit means for generating a plurality of primary power control signals to control operation of a plurality of respective power sources;
- second circuit means for generating a plurality of load switch control signals to control operation of a plurality of respective load switches connected to the power sources;
- third circuit means for generating a slew rate control signal, the second circuit means including connection means for selectively connecting the slew rate control signal to one of the load switches to control a slew rate of said one of the load switches;
- and
- fourth circuit means for storing:
- a mode indicator associated with each power source that indicates whether the first circuit means is operating said each power source in a high voltage mode or in a low voltage mode;
- and
- association information indicating an association between the plurality of power sources and the plurality of load switches,
- wherein the third circuit means generates the slew rate control signal based on the mode indicator of the power source associated with said one of the load switches.
6 more elements
A method in a circuit comprising:
- storing configuration data in the circuit indicative of a plurality of reference voltage levels associated with a plurality of power sources;
- generating within the circuit a plurality of primary control signals to operate the power sources according to their corresponding reference voltage levels to output corresponding first voltage levels;
- generating within the circuit a plurality of secondary control signals to operate a plurality of load switches connected to the primary power sources to produce corresponding second voltage levels;
- and
- generating a slew rate control signal, wherein the slew rate control signal determines a slew rate of the second voltage level produced by a given secondary control signal operating one of the plurality of load switches.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.