Patent ID: 8212541

Claim:
A power converter circuit comprising: a reconfigurable switched capacitor transformation stage comprising multiple switches and having a transformation stage input port and a transformation stage output port, said reconfigurable switched capacitor transformation stage configured to accept an input voltage at the transformation stage input port and to provide an intermediate voltage Vx at the transformation stage output port wherein said reconfigurable switched capacitor transformation stage provides power conversion at multiple distinct conversion ratios as a function of at least one of: the input voltage, the intermediate voltage, and a reference voltage, wherein different switching patterns of the plurality of switches of the reconfigurable switched capacitor transformation stage correspond to the multiple distinct conversion ratios; and a switching converter regulation stage having a regulation stage input port coupled to the transformation stage output port and a regulation stage output port, said switching converter regulation stage configured to accept the intermediate voltage provided by said reconfigurable switched capacitor transformation stage and configured to provide the output voltage of the power converter circuit at the regulation stage output port wherein the conversion ratio of said transformation stage is dynamically selected from among an allowed set of conversion ratios such that the intermediate voltage Vx is as large as possible while remaining below a specified maximum voltage.