Fast Transient Digitally Controlled Buck Regulator with Inductor Current Slew-Rate Boost

A step-down (buck) switching converter architecture that makes use of switched capacitors to improve the transient response is presented. Using the proposed architecture, the transient response is improved by a factor of two or more in comparison to the theoretical limits that can be achieved with a basic step down architecture. The architecture presented in this paper can be used for both analog and digitally controlled topologies. Simulation results of a 1.8V, 15W, 1MHz digitally controlled step down converter with a 12mV ADC resolution and a 2ns DPWM resolution are presented.