Patent ID: 6853169

Claim:
A voltage regulator having an input terminal to be coupled to an input voltage source and an output terminal to be coupled to a load, the voltage regulator comprising: a) a plurality of slaves coupled in parallel, each slave including: i) a switching circuit to intermittently couple the input terminal and the output terminal in response to a digital control signal, ii) a filter to provide a generally DC output voltage at the output terminal, iii) a current sensor to generate a digital feedback signal representing the current passing through the switching circuit; and b) a digital controller to receive and use the digital feedback signals from the plurality of slaves to generate a digital control signal for each slave, the digital controller configured to operate active slaves of the plurality of slaves at determined phase offsets to minimize voltage ripple and maintain the output voltage at the output terminal at a substantially constant level, the phase offsets representing time delays between the operation of each slave.