The disclosure describes examples of integrate circuit (IC) chips. An IC chip includes a first detector configured to generate information indicative of whether an input supply voltage or power is greater than or equal to a first threshold, a second detector configured to receive a circuit voltage or current level and generate information used to indicate a status of the IC chip based on the received circuit voltage or current level, and a controller configured to cause the IC chip to enter a safe mode in response to both the first detector indicating that the input supply voltage or power is greater than the first threshold and the circuit voltage or current level being greater than a second threshold.

An improved power converter produces power through a power switch in response to an activation signal that has an on-time and a switching frequency. An on-time signal has a constant on-time and controls the on-time of the activation signal. An error signal indicates that the switching frequency is not equal to a reference frequency. A step up signal and a step down signal are based on the error signal. A count signal is increased in response to the step up signal and decreased in response to the step down signal. An on-time pulse has a duration that is related to a value of the count signal. The on-time pulse controls the constant on-time of the on-time signal and maintains the switching frequency at about the reference frequency.

Various embodiments of charge adjustment techniques for a switched capacitor power converter are described. In one example embodiment, briefly, charge adjustment techniques may include a technique to operate a charge pump so as to reduce electrical transient effects that may occur during charge pump transition operation between a first steady state charge pump operation with respect to a first configuration gain mode and a second steady state charge pump operation with respect to a second configuration gain mode. In some instances, electrical transient effects may occur during charge pump transition operation, at least in part, from a selectable adjustment of charge pump configuration gain with respect to a configuration gain mode.

A current source and/or current sink digital-to-analog converter (DAC) includes a DAC circuit that converts a digital code to an analog current or voltage signal, an optional transconductance circuit that converts a voltage output of the DAC circuit into a current signal, and an output circuit that amplifies a current output of the DAC circuit or optionally amplifies a current output of the transconductance circuit to set a desired high current output for application to an output of the current source and/or current sink DAC. A power supply control current may be coupled to a power supply circuit that supplies power to the output circuit of the current source and/or current sink DAC. The power supply control current adjusts the output of the power supply circuit to cause the current source and/or current sink DAC to operate at a higher power efficiency.

A circuit for controlling a switch of a power converter includes a first clock signal generator configured to generate a first clock signal and a switching signal generator configured to generate a switching signal to control the switch of the power converter based on the first clock signal. The circuit further includes error detection circuitry configured to output an error indication and a second clock signal generator configured to generate, in response to the error indication, a second clock signal that comprises an edge of a clock cycle of the second clock signal that corresponds to when the switching signal deactivates the switch of the power converter plus a time delay. The switching signal generator is configured to generate the switching signal to control the switch of the power converter further based on the second clock signal in response to the error indication being output by the error detection circuitry.

A control circuit for an isolated power converter includes a first sensing circuit that senses a secondary side output voltage and produces a pulse wave modulation (PWM) signal having a duty cycle that is proportional to a value of the secondary side output voltage. The PWM is transferred across the converter isolation barrier to the primary side, and a primary side circuit receives the PWM signal and outputs a control signal. A controller determines the value of the secondary side output voltage from the control signal and uses the value to control primary side power switching devices of the isolated power converter to regulate the secondary side output voltage at a selected value.

The present invention relates to an adaptive soft start and soft stop device for a converter, and more particularly, provides an adaptive soft start and soft stop device for a converter which controls a final output voltage to be increased or decreased with a predetermined gradient by increasing a duty at a predetermined rate or increases a frequency during a start period using an input voltage Vin and an output voltage Vo and decreasing the duty at a predetermined rate or decreases a frequency during a stop period.

An electric power converter includes: an electric power conversion unit configured to convert electric power that has been input, and output the converted electric power; and a control unit configured to control, based on a reference function, an electric power conversion characteristic of the electric power conversion unit, wherein the reference function includes plural droop functions that have been defined according to input values, have drooping characteristics different from one another, and have been connected to each other, and the control unit is configured to control the electric power conversion characteristic by control schemes that are different from one another and are according to the drooping characteristics of the droop functions.

A voltage regulator with dynamic voltage and frequency tracking is shown. The voltage regulator has power switches converting an input voltage into an output voltage, a control loop, a voltage comparator, and a target voltage generator. The control loop is coupled to the power switches to control the power switches to perform voltage regulation. The voltage comparator compares the output voltage to the target voltage to generate a first control signal to control the control loop. The target voltage generator generates the target voltage for the voltage comparator based on the frequency difference between the target frequency and the critical-path-related frequency, wherein the critical-path-related frequency depends on the output voltage. The power efficiency and response time are improved.

A control method of a switching circuit, a control circuit of the switching circuit, and the switching circuit are provided. The switching circuit includes an inductor or a transformer. An operational amplification is performed on an output feedback voltage and a first reference voltage of the switching circuit to obtain a compensation voltage. The compensation voltage controls an on-time of a main switch of the switching circuit. When the current of the inductor or the transformer drops to a threshold, after a time, the main switch is switched from off to on, and the output feedback voltage controls the time. When the output feedback voltage is higher than a first threshold voltage, the compensation voltage is pulled down. When the output feedback voltage is lower than a second threshold voltage, the compensation voltage is pulled up.