Battery charger for preventing charging currents from overshooting during mode transition and method thereof

1. A battery charger for charging a battery, comprising:

a charging regulation circuit having an input terminal, a control terminal, and an output terminal, wherein the input terminal is for being coupled to a power supplier, the output terminal is coupled to a node N 1 , the control terminal is coupled to a node N 5 , and the charging regulation circuit outputs a charging current whose amount is regulated based on a regulation signal at the control terminal;

a first current sensing unit having a first and a second input terminals and a first and a second output terminals, wherein the first input terminal is coupled to the node N 1 , the first output terminal is coupled to a node N 2 for being coupled to the battery, the second input terminal is inputted by a first reference signal, the second output terminal is coupled to a node N 3 , and the first current sensing unit senses a current level on a path from the node N 1 to the node N 2 and outputs an error signal at the second output terminal based on the current level and the first reference signal;

an operational amplifier having a positive input terminal coupled to the node N 2 , a negative input terminal coupled to a node N 4 , and an output terminal coupled to the node N 5 for generating the regulation signal;

a comparator for comparing a second reference signal with the voltage of the node N 2 , and generating an enabling signal;

a first switch unit for electrically coupling the second output terminal of the first current sensing unit to the node N 5 when the enabling signal is not active;

a second switch unit for electrically coupling the output terminal of the operational amplifier to the node N 5 when the enabling signal is active; and

a third switch unit for electrically coupling the comparator to the second reference signal when the enabling signal is active, or for electrically coupling the comparator to the node N 4 when the enabling signal is not active; and

a reference voltage generator having an input terminal coupled to the node N 3 and an output terminal coupled to the node N 4 , comprising:

an ADC for converting the error signal outputted by the first current sensing unit to a digital signal; and

a DAC for converting the digital signal to a reference voltage, wherein the DAC decreases the reference voltage when the enabling signal is active and the error signal indicates that the current level on the path from the node N 1 to the node N 2 is greater than the first reference signal:

wherein the voltage at the node N 2 reflects the battery voltage of the battery.

2. The battery charger of claim 1 , wherein the battery is a Li-ion battery.

3. The battery charger of claim 1 , wherein the ADC in the reference voltage generator comprises:

a sampler electrically coupled to the first current sensing unit, for generating a sampling result by sampling the error signal; and

a shift register electrically coupled to the sampler for bit-shifting a register value stored in the shift register according to the sampling result.

4. The battery charger of claim 1 , wherein the DAC in the reference voltage generator comprises:

a multiplexer (MUX) electrically coupled to the shift register and the operational amplifier for converting the register value to the reference voltage.

5. The battery charger of claim 1 , wherein the comparator is a hysteresis comparator.

6. The battery charger of claim 1 , wherein the first switch unit electrically couples the second output terminal of the first current sensing unit to the node N 3 when the enabling signal is active.