(A) Study on generation of energy-efficient switched-capacitor DC-DC converter topology

Abstract

A power converter is essential because each device inside an integrated circuit requires a different operating voltage. Power converters are mainly evaluated in terms of power efficiency, area, and cost. The switched-capacitor power converter is a power converter that can compensate for the shortcomings of linear regulators and inductor-based power converters, which are commonly used as existing power converters, in the three aspects mentioned above. However, in switched-capacitor power converters, the voltage conversion ratio is not continuous, so precise power conversion may be difficult. In addition, if the equivalent output impedance is high, power efficiency can be greatly reduced, and if the number of flying capacitors used is large, the structure and layout become complicated. Therefore, this paper proposes a new switched-capacitor power converter topology that can compensate for the disadvantages of the previously mentioned switched-capacitor power converter. The proposed topology can generate any rational voltage conversion ratio, minimizes the equivalent output impedance, and minimizes the number of flying capacitors used.