SNVSB63A September 2018 – June 2021 LP8732-Q1
PRODUCTION DATA
Under heavy load conditions, the dual-phase converter switches both channel 180° apart. As a result, the dual-phase converter has an effective ripple frequency two times greater than the switching frequency of a single phase. However, the parallel operation decreases the efficiency at light load conditions. In order to overcome this operational inefficiency, the LP8732xx-Q1 can change the number of active phases to optimize efficiency for the variations of the load. This is called phase adding and shedding. The concept is shown in Figure 7-2.
The converter can be forced to dual-phase operation by the BUCK0_FPWM_MP bit in the BUCK0_CTRL_1 register. If the regulator operates in forced dual-phase mode the forced PWM operation is automatically used. If the dual-phase operation is not forced, the number of phases are added and shedded automatically to follow the required output current.
Interleaving switching action of the converters and channels in a 2-phase configuration is shown in Figure 7-3.