Charge pumps & capacitive DC-DC converters

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charge pumps are capacitive DC-DC converters. The two most common switched capacitor voltage converters are the voltage inverter and the voltage doubler circuit

image-20241014211627207

voltage doubler

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output buffer capacitor

To achieve a stable DC output voltage

Step-Wise Ramp-Up

without load

\[ V_{in} C_p + V_{out,n-1}C_o = (V_{out,n}-V_{in})C_p + V_{out,n}C_o \]

We derive a recursive equation that describes the output voltage \(V_{out,n}\) after the \(n\)th clock cycle \[ V_{out,n} = \frac{2V_{in}C_p + V_{out,n-1}C_o}{C_p + C_o} \]

Voltage Ripple & Droop

ripple_droop.drawio

\[\begin{align} (V_t - V_h)(C_p + C_o) &= \frac{I_{load}}{2f_{sw}} \\ (V_h - V_b)C_o &= \frac{I_{load}}{2f_{sw}} \end{align}\]

we obtain \[ V_t - V_b = \frac{I_{load}}{f_{sw}C_o}\left(1 - \frac{C_p}{2(C_p + C_o)}\right) \] That is, peak-to-peak ripple \[ \Delta V_{out,p2p} \approx \frac{I_{load}}{f_{sw}C_o} \space\space\space\space \text{if}\space\space C_o \gg C_p \]

Then, with aforementioned Step-Wise Ramp-Up equation, \(V_t = \frac{2V_{in}C_p + V_bC_o}{C_p + C_o}\) \[\begin{align} V_b &= 2V_{in} - \frac{I_{load}}{f_{sw}C_p}\left(1 + \frac{C_p}{2C_o}\right) \\ V_t &= 2V_{in} - \frac{I_{load}}{f_{sw}C_p}\left(1 - \frac{C_p}{2(C_p+C_o)}\right) \end{align}\]

Therefore, average output voltage \(\overline{V}_{out}\) in steady-state is \[ \overline{V}_{out} = \frac{V_t+V_b}{2}=2V_{in} - \frac{I_{load}}{f_{sw}C_p}\left(1 + \frac{C_p^2}{4C_o(C_p+C_o)}\right) \approx 2V_{in} - \frac{I_{load}}{f_{sw}C_p} \] which results in a simple expression for the output voltage droop

\[ \Delta V_{out} = \frac{I_{load}}{f_{sw}C_p} \]

The charge pump can be modeled as a voltage source with a source resistance \(R_\text{out}\). Therefore, \(\Delta V_{out}\) can be seen as the voltage drop across \(R_\text{out}\) due to the load current:

\[ R_{out} = \frac{\Delta V_{out}}{I_{load}} = \frac{1}{f_{sw}C_p} \] image-20241015072846141

capacitive charging loss

increase with switching frequency

SSL & FSL

slow-switching limit (SSL), fast-switching limit (FSL)

reference

Bernhard Wicht, "Design of Power Management Integrated Circuits". 2024 Wiley-IEEE Press

Breussegem, T. v., & Steyaert, M. (2013). CMOS integrated capacitive DC-DC converters. Springer

Zhang, Milin, Zhihua Wang, Jan van der Spiegel and Franco Maloberti. "Advanced Tutorial on Analog Circuit Design." (2023).

Anton Bakker, Tim Piessens., ISSCC2014 T9: Charge Pump and Capacitive DC-DC Converter Design

Wicht, B., ISSCC2020 T2: Analog Building Blocks of DC-DC Converters [https://www.nishanchettri.com/isscc-slides/2020%20ISSCC/TUTORIALS/T2Visuals.pdf]

Hoi Lee, ISSCC2018 T8: Fundamentals of Switched-Mode Power Converter Design [slides,transcript]