Monolithic distributed power management for Systems-on-Chip (SoC)

With increasing drive towards higher level of integration, lower cost, and longer battery life in wireless applications, there is a need for efficient monolithic DC-DC power converters. This tutorial paper summarizes the topology tradeoffs that are involved in the implementation of monolithic distributed power management in the future generations of SoCs for portable wireless applications. These circuits have a broad range of requirements including high power density, high energy efficiency, low noise, small size, and low cost. The advantages and disadvantages of each of the competing topologies, namely low-dropout linear, switched-capacitor, and switched-mode DC-DC converters are examined in light of these requirements.