Patent ID: 7893669

Claim:
A method of efficiently generating a voltage signal, comprising the steps of: with each of at least two sets of buck and sync transistors and in successive respective time periods, directing conducted currents through a respective inductor of a group of inductors; and magnetically coupling induced currents in the respective inductor of at least one other of said sets; during at least one operational mode and in at least a selected one of said sets, turning off the buck transistor of said selected set throughout said operational mode; and turning on the sync transistor of said selected set for at least the time that an associated buck transistor is turned on in an associated set that couples induced currents in the respective inductor of said selected set; and providing the conducted and induced currents of said sets to a load to thereby efficiently generate said voltage signal; wherein said turning on step includes the steps of: turning on the sync transistor of said selected set when said associated buck transistor turns on; and turning off the sync transistor of said selected set at the end of a time span that begins when said associated buck transistor is turned off; and further including the step of determining said time span by the decay of a circuit signal to a predetermined threshold signal, wherein said determining step includes the step of configuring said circuit signal to decay in accordance with a selected one of an RC time constant and an RL time constant.