A novel low quiescent current PFM method with independent threshold for buck switching converters

Efficiency is the key parameter of switching converters. Pulse frequency modulation (PFM) is often used to reduce the dynamic loss at the light load condition, while Pulse width modulation (PWM) is used in heavy load case. The efficiency at the heavy load is usually process dependent, however there are many circuits design considerations for the efficiency and other electrical performances improvement in the light load case. This paper will propose a method which can operate in the PWM in heavy load condition and automatically change to the PFM in light load condition with accurate PFM current threshold independent to input voltage, output voltage, switching frequency and inductor value. The adaptive accurate zero cross comparator (AAZCC) for DCM (discontinuous mode) and the method to achieve very low quiescent current consumption in the skip period are also introduced, those two are the points to further improve the efficiency in light or medium load conditions. A prototype has been designed with a 0.18 μm CMOS process.