A 500 MHz, 68% efficient, fully on-die digitally controlled buck Voltage Regulator on 22nm Tri-Gate CMOS

Abstract

A fully on-die, digitally controlled, 500MHz switching, 250mA rated output buck Voltage Regulator (VR) implemented in 22nm Tri-Gate CMOS is presented. The silicon measured a peak efficiency of 68% and consumed an area of 0.6mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> (without output decoupling) with a power density of about 410 mW/mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . The paper also demonstrates a controller bandwidth of 43MHz; the highest reported to date for any digital controller, resulting in output voltage ramp rates as high as 10V/µsec.