Personnel

FICs - Prof. Philip K. T. Mok and Prof. Wing-Hung Ki

Description

Battery-operated portable electronic devices such as cellular phones, personal digital assistances (PDAs), handheld PCs and other palm-size devices are in great demand in todayis consumer market. High efficient low-voltage low-power switch mode DC-DC converters are mandatory in these devices for maximizing the system run-time. In order to decrease the size and weight of these devices, miniaturization of the power modules is essential. One current trend is to operate the DC-DC converters at higher frequency so that the passive components with smaller capacitor and inductor values can be used. Another trend is to use lower power supply voltage to reduce power consumption of the converter and thus the battery size. As a result, the IC controller inside these converters will need to operate at the very low voltage of 1 to 1.5 volts. The design of these low-voltage DC-DC converters has become a very challenging and important form of research.

This project is aimed to design a small high efficient low-voltage (~1 volt) low-power (<1 watt) single chip DC-DC converter for battery-operated handheld devices. Several issues must be investigated before the realization of this converter. These include the design of a suitable control scheme to optimize the overall efficiency of the converter and the design of low-voltage analog building blocks such as voltage references, operational amplifiers, oscillators, etc. for the controller IC. Other issues such as the integration of the controller, power switches and the passive components to satisfy the severe size and weight restriction of the portable devices will also be explored.

Source: RGC | ITF