US Patent 7936158 Switching regulator configured to detect and shutdown reverse current

A switching regulator includes a first switch, an inductor, a second switch, a controller to control a switching operation by switching the first switch and switching the second switch complementally to the first switch, and a reverse current detector to detect a reverse current that flows from an output terminal toward the second switch. The reverse current detector generates a proportional voltage that is proportional to a voltage at a junction node between the second switch and the inductor, and detects a generation or an indication of the reverse current based on the proportional voltage. The controller turns the second switch off to create a shutdown state when the reverse current detector detects the generation or the indication of the reverse current.