Converter Achieves High Efficiency Through Digital Control
Oct 11, 2006 3:28 PM
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Spotlight on Digital Power
Edward Herbert was granted U. S. Patent No. 7,098,638 on August 29, 2006. This true digital power conversion topology builds on the switched-current power converter technology and extends its application to the processor itself.
The parasitic impedance of the interposer limits the dynamic response of an external power supply. Using the totem-pole power converter for processors, the impedance of the interposer is no longer a problem; it becomes part of the solution.
Mr. Herbert stated, “The greatest waste of power in a processor is the loss due to the leakage current when the processor is idle. By reducing the core voltage to zero, all of that power is saved. This was not possible until now, as the processor has to be ‘ready,’ and it took too long to restore the voltage. The switched-current power converter has very fast dynamic response.”
It can transition from no load to full load in less than a microsecond. The recently-issued patent shows how to use "passive ballasting" to divide a constant current into a large number of smaller constant currents. The ballasting is very small parallel inductors, and the self-inductance of parallel circuit board traces is sufficient for most applications.
Using the switched current technology with switched charge, the voltage can go from 0 V, 0 A to any VID and any load current in less than a microsecond, and it can go from any VID, any load current to 0 V, 0 A just as fast.
Mr. Herbert is an independent inventor and holds over 30 U.S. patents within and beyond electronic power conversion. He is founder and president of FMTT, a company created to license the matrix transformer, one of his magnetics technology innovations from the late 1980s.
A graduate from Yale University in Electrical Engineering, Mr. Herbert draws upon his broad practical experience collected from a commercial and military equipment design career that spans over 30 years.
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