A Highly Integrated Power Management IC for Advanced Mobile Applications

Wireless communication now has the speed and power to converge seamlessly with other consumer and business electronics. However, battery technology has not kept pace with advancement in circuit technology. As a result, design of power management is becoming a more complex problem for this new generation of wireless devices with converged voice, data, and multimedia. In this paper, a highly integrated power management IC (PMIC) is presented which enables mobile devices that are more cost effective, thinner and more compact with better power efficiency. The overall architecture and system level design considerations are described. The design details of two key building blocks - low-dropout linear regulator (LDO) and switch-mode DC-DC converter - are also discussed, including a novel frequency compensation method for LDO.