Patent ID: 7457140

Claim:
In a DC-to-DC power converter system having first and second switches connected in a half-bridge arrangement at a common node and through an inductor to a regulated output terminal, wherein the regulated output terminal is connectable to an output capacitor and a load, circuitry for hysteretic control of the DC-to-DC converter comprising: circuitry for generating a ramp voltage which is proportional to current flowing through the inductor; circuitry for summing the ramp voltage with an output voltage which appears at the regulated output terminal of the DC-to-DC power converter to provide a feedback signal which tracks the inductor current; and circuitry for controlling the DC-to-DC converter in response to the sum of the ramp voltage and the output voltage, thereby providing hysteretic control of the DC-to-DC converter which is not dependent on an equivalent series resistance (ESR) of the output capacitor.