New techniques for reducing power losses in miniature DC/DC converters

摘要

Great advances have been made in recent years in the design of DC/ DC converter circuits by increasing their switching frequency. This has led to improved performance - more accurate regulation and faster response to transients - and to reductions in the space occupied by converters. But two fundamental trade-offs have continued to dog converter designs when it comes to power efficiency: Reducing the size of the power switch tends to reduce its efficiency, and reducing the power to the feedback elements tends to reduce their performance. Now new approaches to the fabrication of converter power switches and to the operation of feedback circuits have succeeded in overcoming previous limitations in the efficiency of DC/DC converters. This article describes them and outlines their impact for designers of low-power and battery-powered devices.