A zero-voltage switching technique for high frequency buck converter ICs

Abstract

This thesis explores a zero-voltage switching (ZVS) method that can be used to decrease the frequency dependent losses in a buck converter. The specific application for this thesis was a buck converter IC with an input voltage of up to 42V. The method utilizes the addition of an auxiliary circuit composed of a helper inductor and two helper power MOSFETs that compliment the switching transition of a conventional synchronous buck converter topology. It is shown in this thesis that by using the described topology, the switching losses of the high-side power MOSFET in a synchronous buck converter can be reduced by up to 45%. Furthermore, it is shown that a similar helper circuit could be used to reduce the gate drive losses for both power MOSFETs in a synchronous buck converter by up to 60%. Since the method requires the use of an additional helper inductor with a small value (10-50 nH), various methods to integrate this inductor into an IC package are investigated. 0.35[mu]m BiCMOS technology was used to simulate and analyze the merits of the described topology and compare it to the LT8697, a hard-switched synchronous buck converter IC.