Design Considerations for Power-Efficient Fully Integrated 3:1 Switched Capacitor DC-DC Converter for PV Modules

This article presents a power-efficient DC-DC converter based on a switched-capacitor (SC) cell in power management systems supplied for fully integrated photovoltaic (PV) modules. These modules shall provide high-performance point-of-load voltage regulation. The primary objective of this study is to better utilize capacitance and switches by selecting a proper SC topology in order to improve the power efficiency of SC converters. A general steady-state performance model is investigated to optimize and compare a variety of SC DC-DC topologies. The investigation method relies on a charge-multiplier approach and considers the impact of area constraint on capacitors. To identify the most suitable topology for a given conversion ratio, the performance-limit metrics of SC converters are calculated. The analysis provides framework to determine optimum switch size and switching frequency for a two-phase 3:1 series-parallel converter for a target load current of 10 mA implemented on a 22 nm process technology. The results shows that a minimum of 250 MHz switching frequency is desirable for achieving a target efficiency greater than 85% while maintaining the minimum output voltage of 0.34 V. The analysis results are verified through MATLAB and PSpice-based simulations.