Individual phase temperature monitoring and balance control for smart power stage-based voltage regulator

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10224816-B2
Application number	US-201715461137-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 16, 2017
Priority date	Mar 16, 2017
Publication date	Mar 5, 2019
Grant date	Mar 5, 2019

Abstract

Systems and methods for individual phase temperature monitoring and balance control in a multi-phase voltage regulator may include a plurality of smart power stages including a first smart power stage and a second smart power stage and a voltage regulator controller. The voltage regulator controller may send a first control signal to the first smart power stage to enable the first smart power stage to send a first temperature of the first smart power stage to the voltage regulator controller during a first phase of a switching cycle. The voltage regulator controller may also determine that the first temperature received by the voltage regulator controller corresponds to the first smart power stage based on the first control signal. The voltage regulator controller may further send a second control signal to the second smart power stage to enable the second smart power stage to send a second temperature to the voltage regulator controller during a second phase.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A multi-phase voltage regulator, comprising:
a plurality of smart power stages including a first smart power stage and a second smart power stage; and
a controller coupled to:
the first smart power stage by a first signal line and a shared monitor bus, and
the second smart power stage by a second signal line and the shared monitor bus,

the voltage regulator controller to:
send a first control signal to the first smart power stage via the first signal line to enable the first smart power stage to send a first temperature of the first smart power stage to the voltage regulator controller during a first phase of a switching cycle corresponding to the first smart power stage;
determine that the first temperature received by the voltage regulator controller via the shared monitor bus corresponds to the first smart power stage based on the first control signal; and
send a second control signal to the second smart power stage via the second signal line to enable the second smart power stage to send a second temperature to the voltage regulator controller during a second phase.

2. The multi-phase voltage regulator of claim 1 , the voltage regulator controller further to:
determine that the second temperature received by the voltage regulator controller corresponds to the second smart power stage based on the second control signal.

3. The multi-phase voltage regulator of claim 1 , the first smart power stage further comprising:
a first switch to send the first temperature to the voltage regulator controller based on a rising edge of the first control signal.

4. The multi-phase voltage regulator of claim 3 , wherein the first switch is controlled by a mono-stable multi-vibrator.

5. The multi-phase voltage regulator of claim 1 , the voltage regulator controller further to:
determine whether the first temperature of the first smart power stage is equal to or greater than a value of a temperature imbalance threshold; and
when the first temperature is equal to or greater than the value of the temperature imbalance threshold,
reduce a first duty cycle of the first phase and adjust each duty cycle of each of the plurality of the other phases according to a temperature balance control policy.

6. The multi-phase voltage regulator of claim 5 , wherein the value of the temperature imbalance threshold further includes an average of each temperature of each smart power stage of the plurality of smart power stages.

7. The multi-phase voltage regulator of claim 1 , the voltage regulator controller further to:
determine whether the first temperature of the first smart power stage is equal to or greater than a value of a temperature imbalance threshold; and
when the first temperature is equal to or greater than the value of the temperature imbalance threshold,
send a warning that indicates an imminent fault of the first smart power stage.

8. The multi-phase voltage regulator of claim 1 , wherein the first control signal is a pulse width modulated signal.

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Mirjafari Mehran
• Luo Shiguo
• Wang Lei
• Zhu Guangyong

Classifications

• H02M3/1584 Primary

  with a plurality of power processing stages connected in parallel · CPC title

• H02M1/32

  Means for protecting converters other than automatic disconnection · CPC title

• H02M2001/327

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H02M1/327

  against abnormal temperatures · CPC title