Power-Tracking Embedded Buck-Boost Converter With Fast Dynamic Voltage Scaling for the SoC System

Abstract

A power-tracking embedded buck-boost converter with a fast dynamic voltage scaling (F-DVS) function is proposed to power the system-on-a-chip (SoC) system. To meet the power request of the SoC for different operation functions, fast up/down-tracking is implemented to achieve the F-DVS function. Recycling energy is also derived to minimize power dissipation during the down-tracking period. In addition, the peak current control and valley current control methods are utilized in the buck and boost operations, respectively, to minimize the effect of switching noise in high switching operation for compact solution. Moreover, the self-tuning pulse skipping mechanism extends the effective duty cycle to achieve voltage regulation and improves efficiency when the input voltage is close to that of the output. Through F-DVS, the tracking speed from 3 to 2 V and vice versa are 15 and 20 mu s, respectively, with a high switching frequency of 5 MHz.