Patent ID: 8823341

Claim:
An integrated circuit DC-DC converter comprising: a comparator/error amplifier; a high-side driver; a low-side driver; a logic module configured to switch between the high-side driver and the low-side driver in a switching mode and configured to only drive the high-side driver or the low-side driver in a linear mode; and a detection module coupled to the logic module and configured to determine if an inductor is present on an output of the DC-DC converter, the detection module selecting the switching mode if an inductor is present, the detection module including an oscillator configured to drive the output of the DC-DC converter and a comparator configured to compare the output of the oscillator with a reference voltage, in which after a predefined time period, the DC-DC converter operates in the switching mode if a sample output of the DC-DC converter is driven higher than the reference voltage by the oscillator and operates in the linear mode if the sampled output is driven lower than the reference voltage by the oscillator.