Patent attributes
A distributed power management system may include a communication bus and a plurality of POL (point-of-load) regulators coupled to the communication bus, and configured in a current sharing arrangement in which each POL regulator of the plurality of POL regulators has a respective output stage coupled to a common load and configured to generate a respective output current. Each POL regulator may have a respective phase in the current sharing configuration, and may transmit and receive information over the bus according to a bus communication protocol corresponding to the bus. The plurality of POL regulators may autonomously synchronize, to each other, a start time of their respective output voltage signal ramps by transmitting monitoring information to each other over the communication bus, while each of the POL regulators is ramping a duty cycle of a gate signal controlling a low-side field effect transistor of the output stage of the POL regulator according to a duty cycle of a gate signal controlling a high-side FET of the output stage of the POL regulator.
