Patent ID: 8373402

Claim:
A power conversion system comprising: a switching converter including: an input voltage port; an output voltage port; an output filter operatively connected to the output voltage port; and at least one switch for selectively connecting the input voltage port to the output filter; an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for sampling a voltage from the output voltage port of the switching converter, wherein the ADC has a non-uniform response characteristic comprising a regulation bin within which a change in the sampled voltage from the output port of the switching converter will produce no change in a digital output of the ADC; an error circuit configured to output an error signal comprising a difference between a reference signal and the digital output of the ADC; a compensator filter for filtering the error signal and producing a pulse width modulator (PWM) control signal; and a PWM module configured to receive the PWM control signal and to output a PWM waveform for alternately driving the at least one switch of the switching converter between an off state and an on state, and further wherein the PWM module is adapted to: alter a duty cycle of the PWM waveform in response to the PWM control signal; generate a timing strobe to cause the ADC to sample the voltage from the output port of the switching converter while the at least one switch of the switching converter is in the off state; and include a dithering circuit having a remainder accumulator wherein: the remainder accumulator receives a fractional portion of the PWM control signal and combines it with a current value in the remainder accumulator to produce a rolling remainder sum; and the remainder accumulator causes the PWM module to increase the duty cycle of the PWM waveform by one unit when the rolling remainder sum equals or exceeds one.