Switched-capacitor DC/DC converter with resonant gate drive

In this paper, a resonant gate drive is proposed to reduce switching losses and simplify control of switches in switched-capacitor (SC) DC/DC power converters. Analysis of losses is presented to facilitate SC power converter optimization. A closed-loop controller is used to enable and disable oscillations of the resonant gate drive so that the output DC voltage is well regulated down to zero load, and so that high efficiency is maintained for a very wide range of loads. Results are experimentally verified on two low-power (0.2 W and 5 W) 5-to-1 step-down power converters with regulated 3 VDC output and efficiency greater than 80% in a 100-to-1 load range.