[2023] High-Efficiency High-Configurability Switched-Capacitor DC-DC Converter

Switched-capacitor (SC) DC-DC converters become more and more popular thanks to the high Silicon integration compared to inductor-based counterparts. With the inductor-less structure, SC DC-DC converters can be easily implemented fully on-chip for miniaturization purposes while maintaining high energy efficiency.

Due to the energy loss when the charge is transferred from one capacitor to another capacitor directly through a wire, the overall efficiency quickly decreases when the output voltage is away from the optimal level. Recently, there are research works on SC DC-DC converters employing multi-topology and soft-charging techniques, which achieve good efficiency at different load voltage levels. However, they still suffer from low output current capacity, and the efficiency quickly degrades when the load current is too low or too high.

In this project, we are going to develop a fully integrated, highly efficient, multi-topology SC DC-DC converter achieving above 90% overall power conversion efficiency, wide voltage conversion ratio (VCR), wide load current range, and high power density.

[1] E. D. Pelecijn and M. S. J. Steyaert, "Stacking Isolated SC Cores for High-Voltage Wide Input Range Monolithic DC–DC Conversion," IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 55, no. 10, pp. 2639-2648, 2020.

[2] Y. Jiang, M. Law, Z. Chen, P. Mak, and R. P. Martins, "Algebraic Series-Parallel-Based Switched-Capacitor DC–DC Boost Converter With Wide Input Voltage Range and Enhanced Power Density," IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 54, no. 11, pp. 3118-3134, 2019.

Assignment

1. Literature review of SC DC-DC converter topologies and associated power management circuits.
2. Design of a highly efficient CMOS circuit for the proposed SC DC-DC converter system. Tape-out is possible depending on the design and available time.

Requirements

You should be familiar with analog IC design and Cadence environment. If you are interested, please send your CV, BSc transcripts and MSc grades (obtained to date) to Sijun Du at email: Sijun.Du@tudelft.nl

Contact

Last modified: 2024-02-07