A capacitor-free CMOS LDO regulator with AC-boosting and active-feedback frequency compensation

A capacitor-free CMOS low-dropout(LDO)regulator for system-on-chip(SoC)applications is presented.By adopting AC-boosting and active-feedback frequency compensation(ACB-AFFC),the proposed LDO enhancement circuit is adopted to increase the slew rate and decrease the output voltage dips when the load current is suddenly switched from low to high.The LDO regulator is designed and fabricated in a 0.6/am CMOS process.The active silicon area is only 770×472μm2.Experimental results show that the total error of the output voltage due to line variation is less than ±0.1 97%.The load regulation is only 0.35 mV/mA when the load current changes fromoto 100mA.     

A capacitor-free CMOS low-dropout regulator with damping-factor-control frequency compensation

A 1.5-V 100-mA capacitor-free CMOS low-dropout regulator (LDO) for system-on-chip applications to reduce board space and external pins is presented. By utilizing damping-factor-control frequency compensation on the advanced LDO structure, the proposed LDO provides high stability, as well as fast line and load transient responses, even in capacitor-free operation. The proposed LDO has been implemented in a commercial 0.6-/spl mu/m CMOS technology, and the active chip area is 568 /spl mu/m/spl times/541 /spl mu/m. The total error of the output voltage due to line and load variations is less than /spl plusmn/0.25%, and the temperature coefficient is 38 ppm//spl deg/C. Moreover, the output voltage can recover within 2 /spl mu/s for full load-current changes. The power-supply rejection ratio at 1 MHz is -30 dB, and the output noise spectral densities at 100 Hz and 100 kHz are 1.8 and 0.38 /spl mu/V//spl radic/Hz, respectively.     

A fully on-chip 1-μW capacitor-free low-dropout regulator with adaptive output stage

A fully on-chip 1-μW fast-transient response capacitor-free low-dropout regulator (LDO) using adaptive output stage (AOS) is presented in this paper in standard 0.13-μm CMOS process. The AOS circuit is proposed to deliver extra four times of output current of the operational amplifier at medium to heavy load to extend the bandwidth of the LDO and enhance the slew rate at the gate of the power transistor. And the AOS circuit is shut off at light load to reduce the quiescent current and maintain the stability without requiring area-consuming on-chip capacitor. Meanwhile, the proposed AOS circuit introduces V_OUT offset at medium to heavy load to counteract the V_OUT drop, which is caused by I_LOAD increase. Hence, transient performances of LDO and V_OUT drop between light load and full load are improved significantly with 1.1-μA quiescent current at light load. From the post simulation results, the LDO regulates the output voltage at 0.7 V from a 0.9-V supply voltage with a 100-mA maximum load current. The undershoot, the overshoot and the recovery time of the proposed LDO with I_LOAD switching from 50 μA to 100 mA in 1 μs are about 130 mV, 130 mV and 1.5 μs, respectively. And the V_OUT drop between light load and full load reduces to 0.16 mV.     

CMOS low dropout linear regulator with single Miller capacitor

A 2-5V 150 mA CMOS low dropout (LDO) linear regulator with a single Miller capacitor of 4pF is presented. The proposed LDO regulator with a bandgap voltage reference has been fabricated in a 0.35 /spl mu/m CMOS process and the active chip area is 485/spl times/586 /spl mu/m. The maximum output current is 150 mA and the regulated output voltage is 1.8 V.     

具有快速瞬态响应和低静态电流的CMOS低漏失稳压器设计

 设计了一种具有快速瞬态响应能力的低漏失稳压器,利用提出的一种瞬态响应加速(Transient Response Enhancement,TRE)电路,有效地提高了稳压器的瞬态响应速度,而且瞬态响应速度的提高并不增加静态电流.设计的LDO电路采用0.5μm标准CMOS工艺投片验证,芯片面积为0.49mm².该LDO空载下的静态电流仅23μA,最大带载200mA.在1μF输出电容、200mA/100ns负载阶跃变化时的最大瞬态输出电压变化量小于3.5％.     

一种低静态电流、高稳定性的LDO线性稳压器

该文提出了一种低静态电流、高稳定性低压差(LDO)线性稳压器。LDO中的电流偏置电路产生30nA的低温度漂移偏置电流,可使LDO的静态工作电流降低到4A。另外,通过设计一种新型的动态Miller频率补偿结构使得电路的稳定性与输出电流无关,达到了高稳定性的设计要求。芯片设计基于CSMC公司的0.5m CMOS混合信号模型,并通过了流片验证。测试结果表明,该稳压器的线性调整和负载调整的典型值分别为2mV和14mV;输出的最大电流为300mA;其输出压差在150mA输出电流,3.3V输出电压下为170mV;输出噪声在频率从22Hz到80kHz间为150VRMS。     

High slew rate current mode transconductance error amplifier for low quiescent current output-capacitorless CMOS LDO regulator

This paper presents a CMOS low quiescent current output-capacitorless low-dropout regulator (LDO) based on a high slew rate current mode transconductance amplifier (CTA) as error amplifier. Using local common-mode feedback (LCMFB) in the proposed CTA, the order of transfer characteristic of the circuit is increased. Therefore, the slew rate at the gate of pass transistor is enhanced. This improves the LDO load transient characteristic even at low quiescent current. The proposed LDO topology has been designed and post simulated in HSPICE in a 0.18 µm CMOS process to supply the load current between 0 and 100 mA. The dropout voltage of the LDO is set to 200 mV for 1.2–2 V input voltage. Post-layout simulation results reveal that the proposed LDO is stable without any internal compensation strategy and with on-chip output capacitor or lumped parasitic capacitances at the output node between 10 and 100 pF. The total quiescent current of the LDO including the current consumed by the reference buffer circuit is only 3.7 µA. A final benchmark comparison considering all relevant performance metrics is presented.     

An output-capacitor-free low-dropout regulator with subthreshold slew-rate enhancement technique

A low power output-capacitor-free low-dropout (LDO) regulator, with subthreshold slew-rate enhancement technique, has been proposed and simulated using a standard 0.18 μm CMOS process in this paper. By utilizing such a technique, proposed LDO is able to achieve a fast transient response. Simulation results verify that the recovery time is as short as 7 μs and the maximum undershoot and overshoot are as low as 55 mV and 30 mV, respectively. In addition, the slew-rate enhancement circuit works in the subthreshold region at steady state, and proposed LDO consumes a 46.4-μA quiescent current to provide a maximum 100-mA load with a minimum 0.2-V dropout voltage. Besides, excellent line and load regulations are obtained and the values are 0.37 mV/V and 2 μV/mA, respectively.     

A full on-chip CMOS low-dropout voltage regulator with VCCS compensation

A full on-chip CMOS low-dropout(LDO) voltage regulator with high PSR is presented.Instead of relying on the zero generated by the load capacitor and its equivalent series resistance,the proposed LDO generates a zero by voltage-controlled current sources for stability.The compensating capacitor for the proposed scheme is only 0.18 pF,which is much smaller than the capacitor of the conventional compensation scheme.The full on-chip LDO was fabricated in commercial 0.35μm CMOS technology.The active chip area...     

250 mV Supply Voltage Digital Low‐Dropout Regulator Using Fast Current Tracking Scheme

This paper proposes a 250 mV supply voltage digital low‐dropout (LDO) regulator. The proposed LDO regulator reduces the supply voltage to 250 mV by implementing with all digital circuits in a 0.11 μm CMOS process. The fast current tracking scheme achieves the fast settling time of the output voltage by eliminating the ringing problem. The over‐voltage and under‐voltage detection circuits decrease the overshoot and undershoot voltages by changing the switch array current rapidly. The switch bias circuit reduces the size of the current switch array to 1/3, which applies a forward body bias voltage at low supply voltage. The fabricated LDO regulator worked at 0.25 V to 1.2 V supply voltage. It achieved 250 mV supply voltage and 220 mV output voltage with 99.5% current efficiency and 8 mV ripple voltage at 20 μA to 200 μA load current.     

交流提升与有源反馈补偿的无片外电容CMOS低压差稳压器

A capacitor-free CMOS low-dropout （LDO） regulator for system-on-chip （SoC） applications is presented. By adopting AC-boosting and active-feedback frequency compensation （ACB-AFFC）, the proposed LDO regulator, which is independent of an off-chip capacitor, provides high closed-loop stability. Moreover, a slew rate enhancement circuit is adopted to increase the slew rate and decrease the output voltage dips when the load current is suddenly switched from low to high. The LDO regulator is designed and fabricated in a 0.6 μm CMOS process. The active silicon area is only 770 × 472 μm2. Experimental results show that the total error of the output voltage due to line variation is less than ±0.197%. The load regulation is only 0.35 mV/mA when the load current changes from 0 to 100 mA.     

An ultra-low power output capacitor-less low-dropout regulator with slew-rate-enhanced circuit

An ultra-low power output-capacitorless low-dropout (LDO) regulator with a slew-rate-enhanced (SRE)circuit is introduced.The increased slew rate is achieved by sensing the transient output voltage of the LDO and then charging (or discharging) the gate capacitor quickly.In addition,a buffer with ultra-low output impedance is presented to improve line and load regulations.This design is fabricated by SMIC 0.18 μm CMOS technology.Experimental results show that,the proposed LDO regulator only consumes an ultra-low quiescent current of 1.2 μA.The output current range is from 10 μA to 200 mA and the corresponding variation of output voltage is less than 40 mV.Moreover,the measured line regulation and load regulation are 15.38 mV/V and 0.4 mV/mA respectively.     

Enhanced active feedback technique with dynamic compensation for low-dropout voltage regulator

This paper presents a novel frequency compensation technique for a low-dropout (LDO) voltage regulator. Enhanced active feedback frequency compensation is employed to improve the frequency response. The proposed LDO is capable of providing high stability for current loads up to 150 mA with or without loading capacitors. The proposed LDO voltage regulator provides a loop bandwidth of 7.8 MHz under light loads and 6.5 MHz under heavy loads. The maximum undershoot and overshoot are 59 and 90 mV, respectively, for changes in load current within a 200-ns edge time, while the compensation capacitors only require a total value of 7 pF. This enables easy integration of the compensation capacitors within the LDO chip. The proposed LDO regulator was designed using TSMC 0.35-μm CMOS technology. With an active area of 0.14 mm² (including feedback resistors), the quiescent current is only 40 μA. The input voltage ranges from 1.73 to 5 V for a loading current of 150 mA and an output voltage of 1.5 V. The main advantage of this approach is the stability of the LDO circuit when external load capacitors are connected, or even without load capacitors.     

基于高摆率误差放大器的无片外电容LDO设计

为了解决无片外电容低压差线性稳压器(LDO)的瞬态响应性能较差的问题,采用跨导提高技术设计了一种高摆率的误差放大器.在误差放大器的基础上,通过电容将LDO的输出端耦合至电流镜构建瞬态增强电路,提升LDO的瞬态响应能力,且瞬态增强电路可以引入两个左半平面零点,改善环路的稳定性.同时,误差放大器采用动态偏置结构,进一步减小...     

A fully on-chip area-efficient CMOS low-dropout regulator with fast load regulation

Fully integrated voltage regulators with fast transient response and small area overhead are in high demand for on-chip power management in modern SoCs. A fully on-chip low-dropout regulator (LDO) comprised of multiple feedback loops to tackle fast load transients is proposed, designed and simulated in 90?nm CMOS technology. The LDO also adopts an active frequency compensation scheme that only needs a small amount of compensation capacitors to ensure stability. Simulation results show that, by the synergy of those loops, the LDO improves load regulation accuracy to 3???V/mA with a 1.2?V input and 1?V output. For a 100?mA load current step with the rise/fall time of 100?ps, the LDO achieves maximum output voltage drop and overshoot of less than 95?mV when loaded by a 600?pF decoupling capacitor and consumes an average bias current of 408???A. The LDO also features a magnitude notch in both its PSRR and output impedance that provides better suppression upon the spectral components of the supply ripple and the load variation around the notch frequency. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to show that the LDO is robust to process and temperature variations as well as device mismatches. The total area of the LDO excluding the decoupling capacitor is about 0.005?mm². Performance comparisons with existing solutions indicate significant improvements the proposed LDO achieves.     

A high-PSR transient-enhanced output-capacitorless CMOS low-dropout regulator for SoC applications

A transient-enhanced output-capacitorless CMOS low-dropout voltage regulator (LDO) with high power supply rejection (PSR) is introduced for system-on-chip applications. In order to reduce external pin count and device area and be amenable to full integration, the large external capacitor used in the classical LDO design is eliminated and replaced with a much smaller 5.7?pF on-chip capacitor. High-gain folded-cascode stage, wideband common source stage, voltage subtractor stage and transient-enhanced circuit are designed altogether to realise circuit compensation and achieve good frequency and transient performances. A current-sensing and transient-enhanced circuit is utilised to reduce transient voltage dips effectively and efficiently drive different kinds of load capacitances. The active chip area of the proposed regulator is only 200?×?280?µm². The simulation results under mixed-signal 0.18?µm 1P6M process show that this novel LDO's output voltage can recover within 1.7?µs (rising) and 2.41?µs (falling) under full load-current changes. The input voltage is ranged from 2 to 5?V for a load current 50?mA and an output voltage of 1.8?V. This novel LDO has wide unity-gain frequency stability and is stable for estimated equivalent parasitic capacitive loads from 0 to 100?pF. Moreover, it can achieve a PSR of ?78.5 and ?73?dB at 1 and 10?kHz, respectively.     

Full On-Chip CMOS Low-Dropout Voltage Regulator

This paper proposes a solution to the present bulky external capacitor low-dropout (LDO) voltage regulators with an external capacitorless LDO architecture. The large external capacitor used in typical LDOs is removed allowing for greater power system integration for system-on-chip (SoC) applications. A compensation scheme is presented that provides both a fast transient response and full range alternating current (AC) stability from 0- to 50-mA load current even if the output load is as high as 100 pF. The 2.8-V capacitorless LDO voltage regulator with a power supply of 3 V was fabricated in a commercial 0.35-mum CMOS technology, consuming only 65 muA of ground current with a dropout voltage of 200 mV. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed capacitorless LDO architecture overcomes the typical load transient and ac stability issues encountered in previous architectures.     

A Transient-Enhanced Low-Quiescent Current Low-Dropout Regulator With Buffer Impedance Attenuation

This paper presents a low-dropout regulator (LDO) for portable applications with an impedance-attenuated buffer for driving the pass device. Dynamically-biased shunt feedback is proposed in the buffer to lower its output resistance such that the pole at the gate of the pass device is pushed to high frequencies without dissipating large quiescent current. By employing the current-buffer compensation, only a single pole is realized within the regulation loop unity-gain bandwidth and over 65deg phase margin is achieved under the full range of the load current in the LDO. The LDO thus achieves stability without using any low-frequency zero. The maximum output-voltage variation can be minimized during load transients even if a small output capacitor is used. The LDO with the proposed impedance-attenuated buffer has been implemented in a 0.35-mum twin-well CMOS process. The proposed LDO dissipates 20-muA quiescent current at no-load condition and is able to deliver up to 200-mA load current. With a 1-muF output capacitor, the maximum transient output-voltage variation is within 3% of the output voltage with load step changes of 200 mA/100 ns.     

A frequency compensation scheme for LDO voltage regulators

A stable low dropout (LDO) voltage regulator topology for low equivalent series resistance (ESR) capacitive loads is presented. The proposed scheme generates a zero internally instead of relying on the zero generated by the load capacitor and its ESR combination for stability. It is demonstrated that this scheme realizes robust frequency compensation, facilitates the use of multilayer ceramic capacitors for the load of LDO regulators, and improves transient response and noise performance. Test results from a prototype fabricated in AMI 0.5-/spl mu/m CMOS technology provide the most important parameters of the regulator viz., ground current, load regulation, line regulation, output noise, and start-up time.     

A fast-transient high-PSR output-capacitor-free low-dropout regulator for low-power embedded systems

A low-power fast-transient output-capacitor-free low-dropout regulator (LDO) with high power-supply rejection (PSR) is presented in this paper. The proposed LDO utilizes a non-symmetrical class-AB amplifier as the input stage to improve the transient performances. Meanwhile, PSR enhancement circuit, which only consumes 0.2-µA quiescent current at light load, is utilized to form a feedforward cancellation path for improving PSR over wide frequency range. The LDO has been designed and simulated in a mixed signal 0.13-µm CMOS process. From the post simulation results, the LDO is capable of delivering 100-mA output current at 0.2-V dropout voltage, with 3.8-µA quiescent current at light load. The undershoot, the overshoot and the 1 % settling time of the proposed LDO with load current switching from 50 µA to 100 mA in 300 ns are about 100 mV, 100 mV and 1 µs, respectively. With the help of proposed PSR enhancement technique, the LDO achieves a PSR of ?69 dB at 100 kHz frequency for a 100-mA load current.