Reconfigurable Fully Integrated Switched-Capacitor DC-DC Converter for IoT Applications

The recent wireless sensing and emerging Internet-of-Thing (IoT) market have enabled the development of miniaturized systems with different application requirements. While highly efficient power management is mandatory to ensure the system performance and operation lifetime, on-chip inductive power converters generally exhibits increased manufacturing cost despite of their higher achievable power densities. Due to the full integration together with high energy efficiency and adaptability, reconfigurable switched-capacitor (SC) DC-DC converters are promising for ultra-compact on-chip power solutions. This tutorial will first cover the basic operations and control methodologies of SC DC-DC converters. It will then introduce the conventional SC DC-DC topologies, followed by the fundamental analyses and different loss mechanisms. In-depth studies of different state-of-the-art topology choices for reconfigurable SC DC-DC converters capable of systematic multiple rational voltage conversion ratio (VCR) generation and their fundamental limits will be detailed. Adaptive gate driving techniques with consistent switch driving voltage while preventing reversion loss under wide voltage dynamics will also be introduced. These techniques enable highly efficient SC power converters with better SoC integration for next generation ultra-compact low-cost IoT devices.