The design of an ultra-low power buck regulator supporting dynamic voltage scaling for wireless sensor networks

The design of an ultra-low power buck regulator is proposed. The regulator is designed to be integrated with a single-chip wireless sensor network and provide high efficiency at low output currents to maximize the sensor´s battery life. The maximum output current is 50 mA. Dynamic voltage scaling is also supported to further reduce total power dissipation. The no-load current of the complete regulator is less than 1 muA. Simulation results give an expected efficiency of over 80% at 20 muW of output power and a peak efficiency of over 95%.