Patent attributes
Circuits and methods are provided for voltage conversion within a variant switched-capacitor converter (SCC). The circuit topology of the variant SCC includes an adjustable converter that is interposed between a switch ladder and a rectifier of the variant SCC. The adjustable converter may be an inductor-based switching converter, e.g., a buck, boost, or buck/boost converter. The adjustable converter sets the output voltage of the variant SCC and sets a base current that flows through the adjustable converter. The overall output current is an amplified version of the base current. Because the base current is much lower than the overall output current, the adjustable converter may use a much smaller inductor than would be required by a voltage converter through which the entirety of the output current flows through an inductor.
