Patent ID: 11921149
Assignee: PSEMI CORPORATION
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. An apparatus comprising:
a switching network, when connected to capacitors, forming a switched-capacitor network for transforming a first voltage into a second voltage, said switching network comprising a switch, a driver, and a floating-regulator, wherein the switch is connected to the driver and controlled by the driver, and the driver is configured to receive charge from the floating-regulator, wherein said floating-regulator comprises:
a first current path, a second current path, and a shunt element to cause current received from a node of the floating-regulator to proceed along one of the first current path and the second current path;

wherein the current, when proceeding along the first current path, provides power to drive said switch,
wherein the current, when being diverted by the shunt element, proceeds along the second current path without providing power for driving any switch,
wherein said switching network comprises a first set of switches and a second set of switches, wherein switches from said first set of switches are arranged in series to define a first charge-transfer path that extends from an input of said switching network to an output of said switching network, wherein switches from said second set of switches are arranged in series to define a second charge-transfer path that extends from said input to said output, wherein said first charge-transfer path comprises nodes at which switches from said first set of switches connect to each other, wherein said nodes are configured to be connected to a first plurality of capacitors, wherein said second charge-transfer path comprises nodes at which switches from said second set of switches connect to each other, and wherein said nodes are configured to be connected to a second plurality of capacitors.