Monolithic DC power supplies for wireless telecommunications and multimedia systems

The power supply is often the limiting factor in the portability and operating lifetime of mobile systems. Batteries and power converters are bulky and impact the weight and ergonomics of a system. The converter efficiency imposes a tradeoff between operating lifetime and the energy capacity. A substantial saving in size and weight can be obtained by investigating monolithic power supply topologies. The benefit is chiefly derived from evolving to higher switching frequencies, such that the values of passive components are reduced. However on-chip passives are typically lossier than high-quality discretes, and control issues become more challenging as frequencies exceed 100s of MHz. This paper reports the results of a patented monolithic DC/DC boost converter. The electrical and physical design aspects are described in detail. The paper concludes with some directions for further improvement of the topology and its efficiency