A fully integrated switched-capacitor DC–DC converter with hybrid output regulation

In this paper, we propose a fully integrated switched-capacitor (SC) DC–DC converter with hybrid output regulation that allows a predictable switching noise spectrum. The proposed hybrid output regulation method is based on the digital capacitance modulation for fine regulation and the automatic frequency scaling for coarse regulation. The automatic frequency scaler and on-chip current sensor are implemented to adjust the switching frequency at one of the frequencies generated by a binary frequency divider with change in load current. Thus, the switching noise spectrum of the proposed SC DC–DC converter can be predicted over the entire load range. In addition, the bottom-plate losses due to the parasitic capacitances of the flying capacitors and the gate-drive losses due to the gate capacitances of switches are reduced at light load condition since the switching frequency is automatically adjusted. The proposed SC DC–DC converter was implemented in a 0.13 µm CMOS process with 1.5 V devices, and its measurement results show that the peak efficiency and the efficiency at light load condition are 69.2% and higher than 45%, respectively, while maintaining a predictable switching noise spectrum.     

Efficiency investigation of dc–dc converter with passively damped input filter circuit

Passive damping of input filters in dc–dc converter applications has suffered enormous criticism presumably due to high conduction losses in the damping resistors. However, an accurate quantitative assessment of their adverse impact on efficiency is lacking. Similarly, not enough attention has been paid to the severity and extent to which they can effectively deteriorate a converter-efficiency under varying operating conditions. In order to quantify these losses we have performed a generalised power-loss analysis that helps in predicting this harmful effect of damping resistors on overall filter-converter system efficiency. A practical damping approach using a shunt R–C network, which is most commonly suggested in dc–dc converter applications, is investigated theoretically as well as experimentally. Results show that converter efficiency is susceptible to severe degradation, especially at high loads as well as at smaller damping resistor values. Furthermore, it is shown that these losses are considerably higher in buck-type converters than in boost-type converters. Authors emphasise that considering this negative impact on power economy is of crucial importance while optimising such a damping network.     

A multiple-output switched-capacitor DC–DC converter for individual brightness control of RGB LEDs with time-interleaved control and output current regulation

In this paper, an integrated multiple-output switched-capacitor (SC) converter with time-interleaved control and output current regulation is presented. The SC converter can reduce the number of passive components and die areas by using only one flying capacitor and by sharing active devices. The proposed converter has three outputs for individual brightness control of red–green–blue (RGB) LEDs. Each output directly regulates the current due to the V–I characteristics of LEDs, which are sensitive to PVT variations. In the proposed converter, the current-sensing technique is used to control the output current, instead of current-regulation elements (resistors or linear regulators). Additionally, in order to reduce the active area, three outputs share one current-sensing circuit. In order to improve the sensing accuracy, bias current compensation is applied to a current-sensing circuit. The proposed converter has been fabricated with a CMOS 0.13-μm 1P6M CMOS process. The input voltage range of the converter is 2.5–3.3 V, and the switching frequency is 200 kHz. The peak power efficiency reaches 71.8 % at V _IN =2.5 V, I _LED1 = 10 mA, I _LED2 = 18 mA, and I _LED3 = 20 mA. The current variations of individual outputs at different supply voltages are less than 0.89, 0.72, and 0.63 %, respectively.     

On the output voltage ripple in the ideal boost and buck-boost dc–dc converters

This paper re-examines the typical textbook analysis of the ideal boost and buck-boost dc–dc converters operating in the continuous conduction mode. It is shown that there is a range of valid average load currents for which the simple equation usually derived to relate output voltage ripple to output capacitor size in both converters is not strictly correct. An equation giving the correct relationship for the range of load currents in question is derived, using basic concepts. It is shown that the error introduced by using the original equation where the new one is appropriate is significant if both the switching duty cycle of the converter is relatively small (～0.3 or smaller) and the average load current is close to the continuous conduction cutoff. In such cases the size of the output capacitor needed to meet a maximum output voltage ripple specification will be significantly underestimated. The results are illustrated with an example and PSPICE verification.     

A soft-switching coupled inductor bidirectional DC–DC converter with high-conversion ratio

A soft-switching bidirectional DC–DC converter is presented herein as a way to improve the conversion efficiency of a photovoltaic (PV) system. Adoption of coupled inductors enables the presented converter not only to provide a high-conversion ratio but also to suppress the transient surge voltage via the release of the energy stored in leakage flux of the coupled inductors, and the cost can kept down consequently. A combined use of a switching mechanism and an auxiliary resonant branch enables the converter to successfully perform zero-voltage switching operations on the main switches and improves the efficiency accordingly. It was testified by experiments that our proposed converter works relatively efficiently in full-load working range. Additionally, the framework of the converter intended for testifying has high-conversion ratio. The results of a test, where a generating system using PV module array coupled with batteries as energy storage device was used as the low-voltage input side, and DC link was used as high-voltage side, demonstrated our proposed converter framework with high-conversion ratio on both high-voltage and low-voltage sides.     

Dual-output switched-capacitor DC–DC converter with pseudo-three-phase swap-and-cross control and amplitude modulation mechanism

This paper presents an inductorless dual-output switched-capacitor DC–DC converter employing pseudo-three-phase swap-and-cross control (PTPSCC) and an amplitude modulation mechanism (AMM). The AMM circuit scales the amplitudes of the driving signals for the switches according to the loading conditions in order to minimize switching losses. To reduce output ripples, average charge distribution, and improve regulation, the PTPSCC circuit continuously switches power transistors to deliver enough charge to the outputs by keeping at least one flying capacitor connected to each output. The switched capacitor DC–DC converter was implemented in a standard 0.18-μm 3.3-V CMOS process. Measurements were used to verify that the proposed converter provides dual independently regulated output voltages without cross regulation. The two outputs were regulated at 2.5 and 0.8 V with input ranges of 1.7–2 V. The maximum output loading was 100 mA for both outputs. A power efficiency of 90.5% was achieved at a maximum total output power of 330 mW with a switching frequency of 500 kHz, and a maximum power efficiency of 92.1% was achieved for a total output power of 210 mW. The maximal peak-to-peak output ripple voltages for the two outputs at 100 mA load currents were suppressed to below 26 and 20 mV, respectively.     

Novel bidirectional DC–DC converters based on the three-state switching cell

It is well known that there is an increasing demand for bidirectional DC–DC converters for applications that range from renewable energy sources to electric vehicles. Within this context, this work proposes novel DC–DC converter topologies that use the three-state switching cell (3SSC), whose well-known advantages over conventional existing structures are ability to operate at high current levels, while current sharing is maintained by a high frequency transformer; reduction of cost and dimensions of magnetics; improved distribution of losses, with consequent increase of global efficiency and reduction of cost associated to the need of semiconductors with lower current ratings. Three distinct topologies can be derived from the 3SSC: one DC–DC converter with reversible current characteristic able to operate in the first and second quadrants; one DC–DC converter with reversible voltage characteristic able to operate in the first and third quadrants and one DC–DC converter with reversible current and voltage characteristics able to operate in four quadrants. Only the topology with bidirectional current characteristic is analysed in detail in terms of the operating stages in both nonoverlapping and overlapping modes, while the design procedure of the power stage elements is obtained. In order to validate the theoretical assumptions, an experimental prototype is also implemented, so that relevant issues can be properly discussed.     

Model predictive control of bidirectional isolated DC–DC converter for energy conversion system

Model predictive control (MPC) is a powerful and emerging control algorithm in the field of power converters and energy conversion systems. This paper proposes a model predictive algorithm to control the power flow between the high-voltage and low-voltage DC buses of a bidirectional isolated full-bridge DC–DC converter. The predictive control algorithm utilises the discrete nature of the power converters and predicts the future nature of the system, which are compared with the references to calculate the cost function. The switching state that minimises the cost function is selected for firing the converter in the next sampling time period. The proposed MPC bidirectional DC–DC converter is simulated with MATLAB/Simulink and further verified with a 2.5 kW experimental configuration. Both the simulation and experimental results confirm that the proposed MPC algorithm of the DC–DC converter reduces reactive power by avoiding the phase shift between primary and secondary sides of the high-frequency transformer and allow power transfer with unity power factor. Finally, an efficiency comparison is performed between the MPC and dual-phase-shift-based pulse-width modulation controlled DC–DC converter which ensures the effectiveness of the MPC controller.     

A CMOS micro power switched-capacitor DC–DC step-up converter for indoor light energy harvesting applications

This paper presents a micro power light energy harvesting system for indoor environments. Light energy is collected by amorphous silicon photovoltaic (a-Si:H PV) cells, processed by a switched capacitor (SC) voltage doubler circuit with maximum power point tracking (MPPT), and finally stored in a large capacitor. The MPPT fractional open circuit voltage (V_OC) technique is implemented by an asynchronous state machine (ASM) that creates and dynamically adjusts the clock frequency of the step-up SC circuit, matching the input impedance of the SC circuit to the maximum power point condition of the PV cells. The ASM has a separate local power supply to make it robust against load variations. In order to reduce the area occupied by the SC circuit, while maintaining an acceptable efficiency value, the SC circuit uses MOSFET capacitors with a charge sharing scheme for the bottom plate parasitic capacitors. The circuit occupies an area of 0.31 mm² in a 130 nm CMOS technology. The system was designed in order to work under realistic indoor light intensities. Experimental results show that the proposed system, using PV cells with an area of 14 cm², is capable of starting-up from a 0 V condition, with an irradiance of only 0.32 W/m². After starting-up, the system requires an irradiance of only 0.18 W/m² (18 μW/cm²) to remain operating. The ASM circuit can operate correctly using a local power supply voltage of 453 mV, dissipating only 0.085 μW. These values are, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the lowest reported in the literature. The maximum efficiency of the SC converter is 70.3 % for an input power of 48 μW, which is comparable with reported values from circuits operating at similar power levels.     

Adaptive duty ratio modulation technique in switching DC–DC converter operating in discontinuous conduction mode

Adaptive duty ratio (ADR) modulation technique in switching DC–DC converter operating in discontinuous conduction mode is proposed in this paper. The proposed ADR modulation technique can regulate the output voltage of the DC–DC converter by generating a series of duty ratios with very simple circuit architecture. The duty ratio is approximately proportional to the square root of the voltage difference between the regulated output voltage and the reference voltage at the beginning of the switching cycle at the light load. As a result, the proposed ADR modulation technique can achieve smaller ripple than the conventional pulse skip modulation over the whole load range. Moreover, the compromise between the light-load ripple and the output power range in the design stage in previous works is solved in the ADR modulation technique. Theoretical analysis, simulation and experimental results are presented to show the operation principle and the advantage of the proposed ADR modulation technique.     

A wide output range voltage-mode buck converter with fast voltage–Tracking speed for RF power amplifiers

A high switching frequency voltage-mode buck converter with fast voltage-tracking speed, wide output range and PWM/PSM control strategy for radio frequency (RF) power amplifiers (PAs) has been proposed. To achieve the fast voltage-tracking speed, the maximum charging and discharging current control method has been used, and the filter inductor and capacitor values are reduced. A novel compensated error amplifier (EA) is presented to realize the wide output range. The investigated converter has been fabricated with GF 0.35 μm CMOS process and can operate at 5 MHz with the output voltage range from 0.6 V to 3.4 V. The experimental results show that the voltage-tracking speed can achieve 8.8 μs/V for up-tracking and 6 μs/V for down-tracking. Besides, the recovery time is less than 8 μs when the load change step is 400 mA.     

Fuzzy control of dc–dc converters based on user friendly design

The aim of this paper is to show how to build a fuzzy controller and its membership functions automatically. In a fuzzy logic controller (FLC), the proposed method allows one easily to construct a set of membership functions, called shrinking-span membership functions (SSMFs). The FLC uses Mamdani-type fuzzy controllers for the defuzzification strategy and inference operators. The FLC hardware implementation is performed on an 8-bit microcontroller. Simulation results and experimental results demonstrate that the converter can be regulated with good performance even when subjected to input disturbance and load variation. The presented approach is generally valid for the design of an FLC, and can be applied to any dc–dc converter topologies.     

A compact 1–30 μH, 1–350 μF, 5–50 mΩ ESR compliant, 1.5% accurate 0.6 μm CMOS differential ΣΔ boost dc–dc converter

Emerging high-end portable electronics demand on-chip integration of high-performance dc–dc power supplies not only to save pin count, printed circuit board (PCB) real estate, and the cost of off-chip components but also to better regulate the point of load (PoL). In the face of a widely variable LC filter, however, integrating the frequency-compensation circuit is difficult without sacrificing stability performance, which is why integrated controller ICs only cater to relatively narrow LC ranges. While ΣΔ control addresses this LC compliance issue in buck dc–dc converters with high equivalent series resistance (ESR) output capacitors, it is not clear how it applies to ΣΔ boost converters. To that end, this paper discusses, analyzes, and experimentally evaluates a prototyped 0.6 μm CMOS differential ΣΔ boost converter. Experimental results verified the switching supply was stable across 1–30 μH, 1–350 μF, and 5–50 mΩ of inductance, capacitance, and ESR while keeping output voltage variations in response to 0.1–0.8 A load and 2.7–4.2 V line changes to less than ±1.5%, peak efficiency at 95%, and switching frequency variation to less than 27%.     

High efficiency,high switching speed,AlGaAs/GaAs P-HEMT DC–DC converter for integrated power amplifier modules

This paper presents a high efficiency, high switching frequency DC–DC buck converter in AlGaAs/GaAs technology, targeting integrated power amplifier modules for wireless communications. The switch mode, inductor load DC–DC converter adopts an interleaved structure with negatively coupled inductors. Analysis of the effect of negative coupling on the steady state and transient response of the converter is given. The coupling factor is selected to achieve a maximum power efficiency under a given duty cycle with a minimum penalty on the current ripple performance. The DC–DC converter is implemented in 0.5 μm GaAs p-HEMT process and occupies 2 × 2.1 mm² without the output network. An 8.7 nH filter inductor is implemented in 65 μm thick top copper metal layer, and flip chip bonded to the DC–DC converter board. The integrated inductor achieves a quality factor of 26 at 150 MHz. The proposed converter converts 4.5 V input to 3.3 V output for 1 A load current under 150 MHz switching frequency with a measured power efficiency of 84%, which is one of the highest efficiencies reported to date for similar current/voltage ratings.     

A voltage mode buck DC–DC converter with automatic PWM/PSM mode switching by detecting the transient inductor current

This paper presents a voltage mode buck DC–DC converter that integrates pulse-width modulation (PWM) and pulse-skipping modulation (PSM) to achieve high efficiency under heavy and light load conditions, respectively. Automatic mode-switching is implemented simply by detecting the voltage drop of high-side power switch when it is on, which indicates the transient current flowing through the inductor. Unlike other methods based on average current sensing, the proposed auto-mode switching scheme is implemented based on voltage comparison and simple control logic circuit. In order to avoid unstable mode switching near the load condition boundary, the mode switching threshold voltage is set differently in PWM and PSM mode. Besides, a 16-cycle counter is also used to ensure correct detection of the change in the load condition and fast response of the converter. In addition, a dual-path error amplifier with clamp circuit is also adopted to realize loop compensation and ensure 100 % duty cycle operation. Fabricated in a 0.18-μm standard CMOS technology, the DC–DC converter is able to operate under supply voltage from 2.8 to 5.5 V with 3-MHz clock frequency. Measurement results show that the converter achieves a peak efficiency of 93 %, and an output voltage ripple of less than 40 mV, while the chip area is 1.02 mm².     

Voltage–frequency converter for laser welding control

An experimental model of a voltage–frequency converter was realised and utilised for the control of the thermal behaviour by the laser welding of thermoplastic polymer materials. The input signal of 0–10?V comes from a thermal–optical real-time analysing device of the welding process. The output signal of 0–300?Hz is introduced to the input interface of a laser welding equipment, for setting the laser pulse frequency. Operation tests were performed on the laser welding equipment type HL 124P LCU. The pulses have rectangular waveform, with the amplitude of 20?V. The frequency is very stable, with deviations of less than 0.5?Hz. The waveform and the frequency response at the converter output are appropriate.     

Possible THz Bloch gain in dc–ac-driven superlattices

We study theoretically the feasibility of amplification and generation of THz radiation in dc–ac-driven semiconductor superlattices in the absence of electric domains. We find that if in addition to dc bias strong ac pump fields are applied, Bloch gain profile for a small THz signal can be achieved under conditions of positive static differential conductivity. We briefly review the case of THz pump and present preliminary results on the use of pump fields belonging to the microwave frequency band.     

A novel Sigma–Delta based parallel analogue-to-residue converter

An important step in the residue number system (RNS) based signal processing is the conversion of signal into residue domain. Many implementations of this conversion have been proposed for various goals, and one of the implementations is by a direct conversion from an analogue input. A novel approach for analogue-to-residue conversion is proposed in this research using the most popular Sigma–Delta analogue-to-digital converter (SD-ADC). In this approach, the front end is the same as in traditional SD-ADC that uses Sigma–Delta (ΣΔ) modulator with appropriate dynamic range, but the filtering is done by a filter implemented using RNS arithmetic. Hence, the natural output of the filter is an RNS representation of the input signal. The resolution, conversion speed, hardware complexity and cost of implementation of the proposed ΣΔ based analogue-to-residue converter are compared with the existing analogue-to-residue converters based on Nyquist rate ADCs.