Patent ID: 7714561

Claim:
A driver for driving a DC-to-DC converter circuit that may have at least two configurations for converting an input voltage from a power source to a regulated voltage, comprising: a driver circuit having a number of components acting to generate a driver output signal for driving the DC-to-DC converter circuit to generate the regulated voltage; and a driver interface control circuit electrically connected to the driver circuit transmitting a selector output signal to one or more of the components of the driver circuit, the driver interface control circuit including an automatic bi-mode voltage sensor sensing the input voltage and generating a sensor signal corresponding to the sensed input voltage and including a driver selector receiving the sensor signal and generating the selector output signal to control operation of the driver circuit, wherein the voltage sensor comprises a current-sense amplifier generating the sensor signal operable in a first state and a second state corresponding to connection of the current-sense amplifier to a high side and a low side, respectively, of the power source and wherein the sensor signal is substantially equivalent in the first and second states, and selects a first circuit or a second circuit for generating an output current that generates the sensor signal, by comparing a voltage input to the current-sense amplifier to a reference voltage.