Title:  Battery-sourced Switched-inductor Multiple-output CMOS Power-supply Systems

Committee: 

Dr. Rincon-Mora, Advisor     

Dr. Ghovanloo, Chair

Dr. Habetler

Abstract: The objective of this research is to explore, develop, analyze, prototype, test, and evaluate how one switched inductor can derive power from a small battery to supply, regulate, and respond to several independent outputs reliably and accurately. One fundamental challenge with this work is integration, because miniaturized dc-dc converters cannot afford to accommodate more than one off-chip power inductor. Managing and stabilizing the feedback loops that supply several outputs at different voltages under diverse and dynamic loading conditions with one CMOS chip and one inductor is also challenging. Plus, since a single inductor cannot supply all outputs at once, steady-state ripples and load dumps produce cross-regulation effects that are difficult to manage and suppress. Small batteries exacerbate these issues because, with limited energy, the power-supply system cannot consume much power. So with several microwatt to milliwatt loads to manage and supply, the state of the art in this area trades accuracy and response time for footprint and power consumption to such an extent that using one inductor to supply several outputs is often impractical. The underlying aim of this research is this, to diminish these tradeoffs to practical levels.