Patent ID: 8400128

Claim:
A method of operating a voltage regulator, comprising: operating in a voltage regulator start mode after the voltage regulator has been turned on, wherein operating in the voltage regulator start mode includes, closing a switching circuit of the voltage regulator to commence a pulse from a plurality of current pulses, counting a number of pulses or an amount of time since the voltage regulator was turned on, determining a maximum current from an ordinal of the pulse or the amount of time since the voltage regulator was turned on, wherein determining the maximum current is based on a function that monotonically increases with the ordinal of the pulse or the amount of time since the voltage regulator was turned on, monitoring an output current from the voltage regulator, and opening the switching circuit when the output current exceeds the maximum current so that the output current ramps down, thereby monotonically increasing the maximum current of the current pulses during the voltage regulator start mode.