Patent ID: 7353122

Claim:
A method for regulating an output voltage of a power converter, the method comprising generating one or more signals for a first circuit in the power converter, the first circuit controlling the output voltage in accordance with the one or more signals, the one or more signals being generated according to one or more parameters, wherein generating the one or more signals comprises: (1) performing consecutive voltage sampling operations to sample the output voltage; (2) in response to the voltage sampling operations, determining the one or more parameters by either (i) calculating at least one of the one or more parameters or (ii) leaving the one or more parameters unchanged without calculating the one or more parameters, wherein for each given voltage sampling operation in a first plurality of said voltage sampling operations, determining the one or more parameters comprises: (2A) determining if at least one of the following conditions is true: Condition 1: the output voltage sampled in the given voltage sampling operation is above a voltage value obtained in an earlier voltage sampling operation associated with the given voltage sampling operation and is above a target value; Condition 2: the output voltage sampled in the given voltage sampling operation is below said voltage value obtained in said associated earlier voltage sampling operation and is below said target value; (2B) if at least one of the Conditions 1 and 2 is true, then calculating at least one of the one or more parameters; (2C) if neither the Condition 1 nor the Condition 2 are true, then leaving the one or more parameters unchanged without calculating the one or more parameters; (3) generating the one or more signals in accordance with the parameters determined in the operation (2).