A hybrid DC/DC converter for ultra-low power wireless sensor nodes

Author

Gruber, Stefan ; Reinisch, Hannes ; Hofer, Günter ; Missoni, Albert ; Pribyl, Wolfgang ; Holweg, Gerald

Author_Institution

Dev. Center Graz, Infineon Technol. Austria AG, Graz, Austria

fYear

2011

fDate

3-7 July 2011

Firstpage

97

Lastpage

100

Abstract

This paper presents an innovative switched capacitor voltage regulator dedicated to ultra-low power wireless sensor nodes. The regulator supports most of the different power supplies used to power such sensor nodes. Using a linear regulator in parallel improves the dynamic response compared to state-of-the-art switched capacitor regulators. Measuring the load current allows adapting the oscillator frequency and thus keeping the efficiency high for different load currents. To measure the input voltage to select the appropriate operating modes of the regulator a new voltage sensor is implemented. The input voltage range is between 1.35 V and 3.3 V. The regulator is implemented in an Infineon 0.13 μm CMOS process and shows a measured peak efficiency of 56%at an output voltage of 0.8 V and a load current of 1 μA.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; DC-DC power convertors; dynamic response; low-power electronics; radiofrequency integrated circuits; switched capacitor networks; telecommunication power supplies; voltage regulators; wireless sensor networks; Infineon CMOS process; current 1 muA; dynamic response; efficiency 56 percent; hybrid DC-DC converter; linear regulator; load current; oscillator frequency; power supplies; size 0.13 mum; switched capacitor voltage regulator; ultra-low power wireless sensor nodes; voltage 0.8 V; voltage 1.35 V to 3.3 V; voltage sensor; Capacitors; Current measurement; Oscillators; Regulators; Switches; Voltage control; Voltage measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Ph.D. Research in Microelectronics and Electronics (PRIME), 2011 7th Conference on

Conference_Location

Trento

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-9138-4

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-9136-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PRIME.2011.5966226

Filename

5966226