Distributed control of a multiphase power converter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10958151-B2
Application number	US-202016803084-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 27, 2020
Priority date	Mar 14, 2019
Publication date	Mar 23, 2021
Grant date	Mar 23, 2021

Abstract

Disclosed are switched-mode DC-DC power converter modules, SMPC controllers, and distributed-control multiphase SMPC systems. The controller comprises: a reference clock; a synchronisation input configured to receive a first synchronisation signal; a synchronisation output configured to transmit a second synchronisation signal; a control unit configured to control the operation of the SMPC module with a phase determined by the reference clock signal or the first synchronisation signal; a delay line configured to generate the second synchronisation signal by adding a delay to the selected one of the first synchronisation signal and the reference clock signal; a fault detection terminal; a memory configured to store a datum corresponding to a number N of SMPCs in the system; and a delay calculation module configured to calculate the delay in dependence on the datum and the signal at the fault-detection terminal. Associated methods are also disclosed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A switched-mode DC-DC power converter (SMPC) controller for an SMPC module for use in a distributed-control multiphase power converter system, the SMPC controller comprising:
a reference clock configured to generate a reference clock signal at a predetermined frequency;
a synchronisation input (SYNC IN,N ) configured to receive a first synchronisation signal;
a synchronisation output (SYNC OUT,N ) configured to transmit a second synchronisation signal;
a control unit configured to control the operation of the SMPC module at the predetermined frequency, and with a phase determined by a selected one of the reference clock signal and the first synchronisation signal;
a delay line configured to generate the second synchronisation signal by adding a delay to the selected one of the first synchronisation signal and the reference clock signal;
a fault detection terminal configured to receive a fault-detection signal;
a memory configured to store a datum corresponding to a number N of SMPCs in the distributed-control multiphase power converter system; and
a delay calculation module configured to calculate the delay in dependence on the datum and the fault-detection signal.

2. An SMPC controller as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising a fault-detection module, wherein the fault detection terminal is configured to transmit the fault-detection signal in response to the fault-detection module detecting a fault in the SMPC.

3. An SMPC controller as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the fault-detection signal comprises a binary signal indicative of the presence of absence of at least one fault.

4. An SMPC controller as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the fault-detection signal comprises a signal indicative of a number, including zero, of faults.

5. An SMPC controller as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the delay calculation module is configured to determine the delay according to the inverse of the predetermined frequency, divided by a number of operational SMPC modules.

6. An SMPC controller as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the number of operational SMPC modules is equal to the datum in the absence of at least one fault and is equal to the datum minus one in the presence of at least one fault.

7. An SMPC controller as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to operate the SMPC module in continuous conduction mode (CCM).

8. An Integrated Circuit, IC, chip comprising an SMPC controller as claimed in claim 1 .

9. A switched-mode DC-DC power converter module, comprising:
a SMPC controller as claimed in claim 1 ;
a reactive element;
a power output;
a switch operable by the controller and arranged to control the reactive element and configured to switchably supply current to the reactive element.

10. A switched-mode DC-DC power converter module according to claim 9 , wherein the reactive element comprises an inductive element.

11. A switched-mode DC-DC power converter module according to claim 9 , configured as a buck or half-bridge converter.

12. A switched-mode power converter module according to claim 9 , configured as one of a flyback converter and a multi-level hybrid converter.

13. A distributed-control multiphase power converter system comprising at least three switched-mode DC-DC power converter modules each as claimed in claim 9 and having their respective SMPC controllers arranged in a linear chain,
wherein the control unit of a first of the switched-mode DC-DC power converters is configured to control the operation of the first SMPC to have a phase determined by its reference clock signal,
and wherein the control unit of each of the others of the switched-mode power DC-DC converters is configured to control the operation of the respective SMPC to have a phase determined by its respective first synchronisation signal.

Assignees

• Nxp Bv

Inventors

• Ashourloo Mojtaba
• Namburi Venkata Raghuram
• Villar Piqué Gerard
• Pigott John
• Trescases Olivier
• Bergveld Hendrik
• El Sherif Alaa Eldin Y

Classifications

• H02M3/335 Primary

  using semiconductor devices only · CPC title

• H02M1/0043

  Converters switched with a phase shift, i.e. interleaved (non-isolated DC/DC converters H02M3/1586) · CPC title

• H02M3/1586

  switched with a phase shift, i.e. interleaved · CPC title

• H02M1/0003

  Details of control, feedback or regulation circuits · CPC title

• H02M1/325

  with means for allowing continuous operation despite a fault, i.e. fault tolerant converters · CPC title