Patent ID: 11881778
Assignee: NORDIC SEMICONDUCTOR ASA
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A circuit portion for providing a target current to an output load and comprising:
a DCDC converter comprising an inductor and configured to charge and discharge the inductor according to a duty cycle to provide current to the output load;
a duty module configured to determine the duty cycle such that the DCDC converter will output the target current; and
a duty limiter module configured to cause the inductor to discharge early if the determined duty cycle exceeds a threshold, wherein the duty limiter module is configured to:
a) identify a maximum voltage value that may be supplied to an output load whilst operating the DCDC converter in discontinuous conduction mode;
b) determine an ideal duty cycle using the maximum voltage value and an input voltage supplied to the DCDC converter, wherein the ideal duty cycle is a duty cycle required for the DCDC converter to supply the maximum voltage value; and
c) set the threshold to be less than or equal to the ideal duty cycle.