Patent ID: 9317047
Filing Date: 2016-04-19
CPC Classification: G05F,H02M,Y02B

Claim Text:
1. A method, comprising: adaptively switching off one or more phases of a multi-phase power supply voltage regulator to increase energy efficiency at relatively low load conditions of operation, the voltage regulator being configured to function at a nominal switching frequency, the switching off leaving active a number of active phases of the voltage regulator; determining a band of current output levels, among a plurality of bands, corresponding to the number of active phases; and keeping off the multi-phase power supply voltage regulator for optimizing energy efficiency at relatively low load conditions of operation, based on the determining, the adaptively switching including: deriving information on an equivalent switching frequency equal to a product of said nominal switching frequency by the number of phases that are active; updating at every beat of a clock signal an instantaneous value of the equivalent switching frequency; determining a band of equivalent switching frequency values, among a plurality of bands, to which said instantaneous value of the equivalent switching frequency belongs; and logically combining said band of equivalent switching frequency values and said band of output current levels, for switching on one or more stand-by phases in response to a load increase transient.