CMOS zero cross-conduction low-power driver and power MOSFETs for integrated synchronous buck converter

This paper presents a circuit and a design of a CMOS zero cross-conduction low-power driver for an integrated synchronous buck converter. The circuit has a zero cross-conduction, yielding low-power dissipation and high efficiency. We used the Cadence design tool with 0.18 mum CMOS technology to implement and verify the functionalities of the low-power buck converter driver. The design criteria of these drivers depend on the power dissipation, delay, and physical size. The DC input voltage of this design is 1.2 V, the DC output voltage is 1 V, the output current is 120 mA, and the maximum operating frequency is up to 100 MHz. The total size of the driver is around 140 micron² plus the area of an inductor and a capacitor. The designed converter achieved the required specification, and its efficiency is up to 97.9%. This circuit is more efficient than other previous low-power buck converter drivers. The proposed circuit is better than Lee´s et al. and our recent design in terms of efficiency, speed, and layout area. The new circuit is more than 4 times smaller than Lee´s circuit. The circuit can be also used in I/O pads for high-current and low-power IC applications