High-Efficiency Self-Adjusting Switched Capacitor DC-DC Converter with Binary Resolution

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel binary-resolution switched-capacitor DC-DC converter that reduces power loss and improves efficiency by automatically charging flying capacitors to binary-weighted voltages, enabling high-resolution output voltages.

Contribution

It develops a new number system and SCC topology that achieve binary and arbitrary resolution, enhancing efficiency over a wide input voltage range.

Findings

Theoretical model accurately predicts power loss.

Simulation and experiments confirm improved efficiency.

Binary SCC can be extended to arbitrary radix systems.

Abstract

Switched-Capacitor Converters (SCC) suffer from a fundamental power loss deficiency which make their use in some applications prohibitive. The power loss is due to the inherent energy dissipation when SCC operate between or outside their output target voltages. This drawback was alleviated in this work by developing two new classes of SCC providing binary and arbitrary resolution of closely spaced target voltages. Special attention is paid to SCC topologies of binary resolution. Namely, SCC systems that can be configured to have a no-load output to input voltage ratio that is equal to any binary fraction for a given number of bits. To this end, we define a new number system and develop rules to translate these numbers into SCC hardware that follows the algebraic behavior. According to this approach, the flying capacitors are automatically kept charged to binary weighted voltages and consequently the resolution of the target voltages follows a binary number representation and can be made higher by increasing the number of capacitors (bits). The ability to increase the number of target voltages reduces the spacing between them and, consequently, increases the efficiency when the input varies over a large voltage range. The thesis presents the underlining theory of the binary SCC and its extension to the general radix case. Although the major application is in step-down SCC, a simple method to utilize these SCC for step-up conversion is also described, as well as a method to reduce the output voltage ripple. In addition, the generic and unified model is strictly applied to derive the SCC equivalent resistor, which is a measure of the power loss. The theoretical predictions are verified by simulation and experimental results.