Patent ID: 7619400

Claim:
A switching regulator, comprising: an input for an input voltage; an output switching circuit; an output circuit comprising switching elements and providing an output voltage; and a control unit comprising: a first switching circuit receiving as inputs a reference voltage and a control voltage, said control voltage being related to the output voltage, and further receiving a control signal, and having a first output and a second output; said first switching circuit being configured to respond to a first value of said control signal to output the reference voltage to its first output and the control voltage to its second output, and to respond to a second value of the control signal to output the control voltage to its first output and the reference voltage to its second output; an error amplifier receiving as inputs the first and second outputs of the first switching circuit and configured to supply a difference voltage by amplifying a difference between its inputs; a pulse width modulation (PWM) comparator receiving as inputs the difference voltage from the output of the error amplifier and a triangular wave and providing a PWM signal resulting from a comparison of the PWM comparator inputs; and a detection circuit configured to respond to an increase of said difference voltage within a first selected range to cause said control signal to have said first value and to respond to a decrease of said difference voltage within a second selected range to cause said control signal to have said second value; said detection circuit comprising binary electronics generating said control signal and supplying said control signal to said first switching circuit; and said output switching circuit comprising logic responding to said PWM signal and to said control signal to control ON-OFF states of said switching elements in said output circuit and thereby control the voltage level of said output voltage.