Experimental Validation of the Advantages provided by Linear - Non - Linear Control in Multi-phase VRM

Author

Quintero, J. ; Barrado, A. ; Sanz, M. ; Láizaro, A. ; Olías, E.

Author_Institution

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Departamento de TecnologÃ\xada ElectrÃ³nica, Grupo de Sistemas ElectrÃ³nicos de Potencia, Avda. Universidad, 30; 28911, LeganÃ©s, Madrid, SPAIN. Tel.: 34-1-6249428; FAX: 34-1-6249430, E-mail: jquinter@ing.uc3m.es

fYear

2007

fDate

Feb. 25 2007-March 1 2007

Firstpage

707

Lastpage

713

Abstract

The power supplies that feed the recent microprocessors, known as Voltage Regulator Modules (VRM), should provided a low and well regulated voltage (0.8-1.5V) under very exigent conditions, since the microprocessor can demand high currents in a very short period of time. There are two solutions in order to design the VRM to meet these specifications: modifying either the topology or the control strategy. Nowadays, to modify the control strategy becomes a more attractive solution. The linear-non-linear (LnL) control strategy allows reducing the switching frequency and the number of phases compared with using a classical linear control. In this paper, the advantages of LnL control are validated by means of experimental measurements in VRM prototypes with four and eight phases, and with switching frequencies of 300 kHz and 600 kHz. The system configuration can be easily adapted since the control has been implemented in a FPGA.

Keywords

Feeds; Frequency measurement; Microprocessors; Phase measurement; Power supplies; Prototypes; Regulators; Switching frequency; Topology; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Applied Power Electronics Conference, APEC 2007 - Twenty Second Annual IEEE

Conference_Location

Anaheim, CA, USA

ISSN

1048-2334

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0713-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/APEX.2007.357592

Filename

4195796