Book Description

Ultimate integration of power switch-mode converter relies on two research paths. One path experiments the development of switched-capacitor converters. This approach fits silicon integration but is still limited in term of power density. Inductive DC-DC architectures of converters suffer by the values and size of passive components. This limitation is addressed with an increase in frequency. Increase in switching losses in switches leads to consider advanced technological nodes. Consequently, the capability with respect to input voltage is then limited. Handling 3.3 V input voltage to deliver an output voltage in the range 0.6 V to 1.2 V appears a challenging specification for an inductive buck converter if the smallest footprint is targeted at +90 % efficiency. Smallest footprint is approached through a 3D assembly of passive components to the active silicon die. High switching frequency is also considered to shrink the values of passive components as much as possible. In the context of on-chip power supply, the silicon technology is dictated by the digital functions. Complementary Metal-Oxide- Semiconductor (CMOS) bulk C40 is selected as a study case for 3.3 V input voltage. 3.3 V Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MOSFET) features poor figure of merits and 1.2 V standard core, regular devices are preferred. Moreover future integration as an on-chip power supply is more compatible. A three-MOSFET cascode arrangement is experimented and confronted experimentally to a standard buck arrangement in the same technology. The coupled-phase architecture enables to reduce the switching frequency to half the operating frequency of the passive devices. +100MHz is selected for operation of passive devices. CMOS bulk C40 offers Metal-Oxide-Metal (MOM) and MOS capacitors, in density too low to address the decoupling requirements. Capacitors have to be added externally to the silicon die but in a tight combination. Trench-cap technology is selected and capacitors are fabricated on a separate die that will act as an interposer to receive the silicon die as well as the inductors. The work delivers an object containing a one-phase buck converter with the silicon die flip-chipped on a capacitor interposer where a tiny inductor die is reported. The one-phase demonstrator is suitable for coupled-phase demonstration. Standard and cascode configurations are experimentally compared at 100 MHz and 200 MHz switching frequency. A design methodology is presented to cover a system-to-device approach. The active silicon die is the central design part as the capacitive interposer is fabricated by IPDiA and inductors are provided by Tyndall National Institute. The assembly of the converter sub-parts is achieved using an industrial process. The work details a large set of measurements to show the performances of the delivered DC/DC converters as well as its limitations. A 91.5% peak efficiency at 100MHz switching frequency has been demonstrated.