New Chip Design Could Make Your Phone Battery Last Longer
This tiny power converter could mean fewer charges and smaller gadgets for you.
This paper presents an N:1 resonant switched-capacitor (ReSC) ladder converter of an output voltage that can be regulated continuously below the native N:1 resonant ratio while maintaining high efficiency. The topology can be generalized to any N-to-1 dc-dc conversion application while requiring only a single inductor.
Efficient wide-range voltage regulation is realized by operating the bottom stack of the ReSC switches as diodes to maintain their switching always in phase with the inductor current, and hence, circumvent circulating currents that increase the inductor RMS current and ohmic losses under frequency control. A theoretical model has been developed to predict the output voltage and efficiency of the converter, with simulation results confirming its accuracy for N = 1, 2, and 4.
A hardware prototype on a printed circuit board is developed to validate the performance of the proposed frequency-controlled regulation scheme. The prototype achieves a peak efficiency of 97% (94.3%) with a load of 30Ohms (resp. 6Ohms) and an efficiency >90% while generating a 9V USB-compatible voltage from a 40V-to-60V input. The measurement results match the model predictions within 0.63% accuracy.
- A new power converter design could make electronics more energy-efficient, leading to longer battery life and less heat.
- It uses a single coil and a ladder of capacitors to smoothly change voltage, which is different from today's standard converters.
- This is still a lab prototype, so it may be years before it's in your phone or laptop.
Why It Matters
More efficient power converters mean longer battery life, cooler devices, and less frequent charging for your everyday gadgets.