1

On-Chip Switched-Capacitor Power Converter Circuits

Jaume Tornila
AbstractThis document is an introduction to SC converter circuits, basic ideas and concepts are discussed and a few innovative solutions are mentioned. The convenience of switched capacitor circuits instead of inductor based circuits in CMOS technology is rst discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of the SC converters are presented in addition with some fundamental concepts in switched-capacitor power management. Regulation and efciency limitations of the SC converter is also discussed. Finally, some example applications for SC converters and capacitor layout techniques are presented.

I. P ROBLEM STATEMENT Switched-capacitor (SC) converters are becoming popular due to the necessity of power management in integrated circuits. Low-cost and space-constraint systems need IC power supplies. Capacitors are easily integrable in chips in comparison to inductors. Integrate inductors on-chip is complicated and expensive in terms of area for a CMOS standard technology. It is possible to make on-chip inductors in other nonstandard technologies but their quality is worst than off chip inductors and hence, power losses are higher. In addition, inductor integration also adds high fabrication costs so it is more convenient at this moment to use integrated capacitors. Given that IC power supplies are a requirement, SC DC-DC converters are preferred than on-chip inductor converters. II. A DVANTAGES AND D ISADVANTAGES OF S WITCHED -C APACITOR C IRCUITS Switched-capacitor circuits allow high integration. As we can see in [3] page 73, the author presents a comparison between energy densities of different capacitors and inductors. By inspection of the data it is concluded that capacitors have energy densities two or three orders of magnitude higher than inductors. Although this comparison is made between discrete components the author claims it is reasonable to assume similar relations in on-chip devices. Capacitors can be easily implemented on-die using CMOS standard technologies. For this reason the fabrication costs are lower than other possible solutions. In section IX some capacitor-layout techniques are reviewed. Since SC converters can be combined and used as multiratio converters, medium-to-high conversion efciencies are possible over a broad range of input variations. With this efciencies it is possible to drive low-power circuits with a reasonable performance. On the other hand, since the current provided by the SC converter is extracted from the charge in the capacitors it is very difcult to provide large currents with high efciency and

with a small area. Thats why SC converters are preferred for low-power applications. In comparison to inductive converters, where there are important voltage spikes due to the inductor, in SC converters voltage-spikes are reduced and hence, the voltage-mode electromagnetic interference (EMI) is reduced. Even if the the voltage-mode electromagnetic interference is reduced, SC converters suffer from current-mode EMI. Output current waveforms contains nite-pulse-width current spikes due to non-zero switched on-resistance Ron . Because of this, current-mode EMI could be an issue in some applications. In addition, the Ron resistance responsible for the current spikes introduce losses to the circuit since it dissipates power. Parasitic capacitances reduce the converter efciency. Onchip capacitors have higher parasitic capacitance than off-chip capacitors because distances between the different components are shorter. Make better on-chip capacitors needs more expensive fabrication processes, so many SC DC-DC commercial converters use off-chip capacitors if integrated capacitors are not a requisite. III. S WITCHED -C APACITOR C IRCUITS F UNDAMENTALS In switched-capacitor circuits the energy is transported to the output using capacitors. Charge ows from capacitor to capacitor. In inductor based power converters we seek for an average constant current using inductors. Inductors try to keep its current constant in a given instant of time, we can see that from the inductor equation (1). In a given instant t, the current depends on the previous values of inductor voltage due to the integral, therefore, a huge variation of voltage is needed to change the current instantaneously. 1 L 1 vC (t) = C iL (t) =

vL (t) dt
0

(1) (2)

iC (t) dt
0

Capacitors do the same as the inductors but with voltage. A high amount of current is needed to change the capacitor voltage at a given instant t as we observe from equation (2). In SC converters the idea is to take advantage of the transient where the capacitor tries to keep the voltage between its terminals. This transient behaviour is what we use in switchedcapacitor circuits to achieve power conversion. A rst order approximation is that in the transitions the capacitor voltage remains the same. As an example the schematic shown in gure 1 is simulated and the results are depicted in gure 2. Initially, the voltage drop on the capacitor is equal to

VDD , then, when the circuit is switched, 5 V are connected to the bottom plate terminal. If the capacitor voltage drop stays the same (5 V in this case) and the bottom-plate potential is changed from 0 to 5 V, the voltage on the upper-plate respect to ground will be 10 V as shown in gure 2. If this is done periodically and at a frequency large enough in comparison with the RC time constants of the circuit, power conversion is possible. Notice that in this example two 5 V power supplies are used to get 10 V, so we could have put them in series in the rst place to get the desired voltage. In practical SC converters only one power source is used, in that case the energy is redirected using several switches.

Figure 3. Ideal model of the switched-capacitor converter.

ROU T is not further reduced. IV. S WITCHED -C APACITOR C ONVERTER T OPOLOGIES According to [3] some of the most common converters topologies are Ladder, Dickson, Fibonacci, Series-Parallel and Doubler topologies. Since every topology has advantages and disadvantages it is important to choose the right topology for a given application. In order to study an compare the different topologies metrics must be created to compare the performance of the different converters. As an example the Ladder topology is presented in gure 4. A set of capacitors, in this case C1, C2 and C3, forms a chain from ground. This set of capacitors establishes a DC path in which every node is at a certain potential. Each node has a potential which is a multiple integer divided by the conversion ratio denominator m presented in gure 3. The other set of capacitors (C4 and C5, referred as ying capacitors) transport the charge between the DC-path capacitors. The switches are phased alternately to equalize the charge between them. This is an example where power conversion can be achieved using switched-capacitors.

Figure 1. Schematic to illustrate the voltage doubler concept.

Figure 4. SC converter ladder topology. Networks in phase 1 and 2 are represented in b) and c) respectively. Figure 2. Simulation results of the voltage doubler concept.

The switches and capacitors of the converter are modelled to other components in order to get a better understanding of the circuit behaviour. The ideal model of a SC converter is presented in gure 3. There are two asymptotic limits for the output impedance, the slow and fast switching limits (SSL and FSL respectively) as related to switching frequency. Since the output impedance limits the amount of energy that can be extracted from the SC converter most analysis study the converter on this two boundaries. There is an optimal switching frequency in which the ROU T is reduced to its minimum. For higher frequencies than the optimal one the

V. R EGULATION OF THE S WITCHED -C APACITOR C ONVERTER AND O UTPUT R IPPLE SC converters, unlike inductor-based converters, have xed voltage conversion ratios. Fortunately, some SC converters have several conversion ratios. Given that some applications require voltage regulation it may be not possible to satisfy the regulation requirements just designing a specic conversion ratio. Moreover, some applications suffer from input and load variations and hence, xed conversion ratios are not a plausible solution. Further regulation is possible by modulation of the output impedance and other techniques.

According to [3] the output of a generic SC converter is given by: Vout = nVin iout Rout (fsw , Di , Gi ) (3)

According to this equation four variables can be used to perform voltage regulation. The rst one is the conversion ratio n, the remaining three, switching frequency fsw , duty cycle and switch conductance can be used to modulate the output impedance of the converter. Notice that regulation by output impedance is lossy. The desired output voltage is created with the product of the output current and impedance and hence power is dissipated to create this voltage drop. Regulation by output impedance modulation is inherently lossy, to ensure high efciency over a broad range of input variations other methods must be used. Multi-ratio regulated SC converters are a possible solution to this problem. Some topologies can perform different conversion ratios by changing the way the switches are clocked. In addition, it is possible to use more than one stage in series to get more conversion ratios at the output. Combining both solutions it is possible to achieve the amount of conversion ratios needed for the desired regulation. For example, using a two-stage converter with a rst stage with two conversion ratios and the second with four conversion ratios it is possible to get eight different ratios at the output. With multiple-conversion ratios the regulation is improved for a broad range of input variations. SC converters are well known for having large output ripple voltages. The ripple of the output can affect the performance of the converter, in addition, many analog and digital circuits are sensitive to ripple or noise on the power rails. If SC converters are planned to be used in such applications the output voltage ripple must be reduced. The most common solution to this problem is using multiphase converters. Many SC converters with interleaved phases are connected in parallel to reduce the voltage ripple. In [13] a SC converter with 41 phases is presented. VI. E FFICIENCY LIMITATIONS Power loss in SC circuits may occur regardless of the presence of parasitic resistance. The energy stored in a capacitor is 1 1 2 2 2 CV and the energy lost in the charging process is 2 CV . If we image a series conection of a voltage source and a capacitor it will be always a resistance between the two. Even if the resistance tends to zero (high quality connection) the energy lost in that resistance will be 1 CV 2 . Hence, if a potencial 2 difference exists between the voltage source and the initial voltage of the capacitor a xed amount of energy loss will always be present. In addition to charge-up losses, conduction losses are also a concern. Conduction losses refer to the power dissipated in non ideal components when the capacitor is not connected to the voltage source. For example, conduction losses are present when a capacitor is connected to the load through a non ideal diode. The power dissipated in the diode is caused by conduction losses. Bearing in mind both charge-up and conduction losses, it should be noted that even if conduction losses can be

minimized using high-quality components, charge-up losses will always be present. When dealing with DC to DC power converters a voltage step is always present hence charge-up losses will be unavoidable. Now should be apparent that in DC to DC conversion an ideal 100% efciency may be impossible to achieve. For that reason, the efciency in practical SC circuits is always < max . Like in inductor-based converters the efciency also depends on the output impedance and on the load. The output impedance depends on the converter topology and conversion ratio hence, some calculations must be performed to choose the right topology in order to keep high efciencies. VII. C ONTROL M ETHODS FOR S WITCHED -C APACITOR C ONVERTERS Some of the possible solutions to provide feedback to SC converters are mentioned here. As discussed in section V it is possible to control the converter changing the conversion ratio and modulating the output resistance. Other strategies to provide feedback for the converter are duty-cycle control in combination with a programmable switching frequency [12]. Switching frequency modulation is also a plausible technique. Frequency hysteresis can be used to control the converter. The traditional hysteric scheme uses two boundaries to perform feedback control. This method uses voltage references and comparators to create and detect the voltage limits and change the state of the converter accordingly. Figure 5 illustrates this idea.

Figure 5.

Hysteric feedback scheme.

Another strategy for the converter control is using an LDO. A Low-Drop-Out regulator can be used to regulate the voltage in the input or the output to reduce the current and voltage ripple respectively. VIII. S WITCHED -C APACITOR C ONVERTERS A PPLICATIONS In [9] some techniques are proposed to minimize power consumption in CMOS circuits. The most important technology issue they consider is the threshold voltage. The control of this voltage allows the reduction of the supply voltage without signicant speed losses. It is also possible to reduce leakage currents adjusting the threshold voltage. The leakage current consumption increases exponentially with a reduction on the threshold voltage as shown in [9] equation (8). The threshold voltage can be reduced using body-biasing techniques. It it also possible to reduce the power consumption using dynamically voltage-scaling. Since power switching consumption is proportional to the square root of the voltage supply, a reduction in this voltage provides lower power consumption.

Both of the techniques mentioned above can be implemented using SC converters. In [10] the authors use a DCDC SC converter to perform supply voltage scaling. A SC converter is used to step-down the input voltage from 1.2 V to 0.6 and 0.3 V. Switched-capacitor circuits are ideal for harvesting systems, self-powered and wireless sensors. In this applications, lowpower and high integration is a requirement, therefore SC converters are a convenient solution. In [11] an energy management IC is proposed to replace batteries with ultra-capacitors as energy storage elements in biomedical applications. This IC uses a switched-capacitor regulator to drive a biomedical implant. The motivation to use ultra-capacitors instead of batteries is the promise they hold to be integrated on a chip. Research in carbon nanotube ultra-capacitors is currently performed. IX. C APACITOR LAYOUT The MOSFET itself has an intrinsic capacitance. The gate capacitance is the most important capacitance in the MOSFET. Thin oxides are necessary to achieve reasonable values of capacitance. This type of capacitor is called MOSCAP. One common technique to layout capacitors in a CMOS process is the poly-to-poly capacitor. This capacitor is made with two layers of poly-silicon as shown in gure 6. This type of capacitor, as with any layout structure, has associated parasitics. The most important parasitic capacitance is called the bottom-plate capacitance. This parasitic capacitance can be 20% of the desired capacitance, thus the IC designer must be aware of this fact when the layout is conceived.

in comparison with standard technologies. One of the new concepts that this capacitor provides is a different structure. As opposite as in other capacitors where the capacitor structure is horizontal along the substrate, this type of capacitor is build vertically through the substrate allowing higher integration per unit of area. Trade-off between capacitance density and area must be studied. The nal choice for a specic type of capacitor must have into account economical costs, parasitics, circuit area, power density requirements and availability of fabrication technologies. X. C ONCLUSIONS Switched-capacitor power converters are an attractive solution for low power applications. Also, the possibility of a fully monolithic implementation for a specic power management problem can provide solutions for future projects. Low-power techniques, biomedical implants, energy harvesting systems or wireless sensors can take advantage of SC converters. New trends in distributed systems can also take advantage of SC converter circuits since it opens the possibility to distributed power supplies and more innovative solutions. Further research in SC converters will lead to better converters with improved efciency and higher power densities. R EFERENCES
[1] Robert W. Erickson, Dragan Maksimovic: Fundamentals of Power Electronics. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001. [2] R. Jacob Baker: CMOS Circuit Design, Layout, and Simulation. IEEE Press 2005. [3] Michael Douglas Seeman: A Design Methodology for SwitchedCapacitor DC-DC Converters. University of California at Berkeley. May 21, 2009. [4] C. K. Tse, S. C. Wong, and M. H. L. Chow: On Lossless SwitchedCapacitor Power Converters. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, VOL. 10, NO. 3, MAY 1995. [5] Mingliang Liu: Demystifying Switched Capacitor Circuits. Newnes 2006. [6] Robert F. Pierret: IV. Field Effect Devices - Modular Series On Solid State Devices. Addison-Wesley 1990. [7] Ken A. Ishimura, Scott D. Willingham, William J. McFarland: United States patent. Stacked-Fringe Integrated Circuit Capacitors. Patent Number: 5,978,206. [8] Naveed Majid, Theodore Letavic: United States patent. High-voltage capacitor voltage divider circuit having a high-voltage silicon-on-insulation capacitor. [9] Anatha P. Chandrakasan, Robert W. Brodersen: Minimizing Power Consumption in Digital CMOS Circuits. Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 83, NO. 4 April 1995 [10] J. Kwong, Yogesh K. Ramadass, Naveen Verma, Anantha P. Chandrakasan: A 65 nm Sub-Vt Microcontroller With Integrated SRAM and Switched Capacitor DC-DC Converter [11] William Sanchez, Charles Sodini, and Joel L. Dawson: An Energy Management IC for Bio-Implants Using Ultracapacitors for Energy Storage. VLSI Circuits (VLSIC), 2010 IEEE Symposium. [12] Ling Su, Dongsheng Ma, A. Paul Brokaw: Design and Analysis of Monolithic Step-Down SC Power Converter With Subthreshold DPWM Control for Self-Powered Wireless Sensors. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, VOL. 57, NO. 1, January 2010 [13] Gerard Villar: A 41-Phase Switched-Capacitor Power Converter with 3.8mV Output Ripple and 81% Efciency in Baseline 90nm CMOS. 2012 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference.

Figure 6. Poly-to-poly capacitor layout and cross-sectional view. Extracted from [2].

There are plenty of different capacitor types in the literature. In [7] a stacked-fringe capacitor is proposed. This capacitor is constructed using the metal interconnection layers. Another type of capacitor which uses metal layers is the MetalInsulator-Metal (MIM) capacitor. This capacitor is often built using high-k dielectrics materials in the insulator layer. Since this family of capacitors are built in upper metal layers, low bottom-plate parasitic capacitances are achieved in comparison to capacitors near the substrate such as poly-to-poly capacitors. It is possible to make a broad variety of capacitors using different technologies. High quality capacitors can be achieved using Silicon-On-Insulator technologies to reduce leakage and other non-desired effects [8]. Another possibility is to use trench capacitors to improve the characteristics of the device