A Fixed-Frequency Auto-Buck-Boost SIMO DC-DC
Converter with Duty-Cycle Redistribution
and Duty-Predicted Current Control
Yanqi Zheng
*†
, Marco Ho
*
, Ka Nang Leung
*
and Jianping Guo
‡
Email: {yqzheng, mho, knleung}@ee.cuhk.edu.hk guojp3@mail.sysu.edu.cn
*
Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
†
SYSU-CMU Shunde International Joint Research Institute, Foshan, China
‡
School of Physics and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
Abstract—This paper presents a fixed-frequency auto-buck-
boost SIMO dc-dc converter with duty-cycle redistribution and
duty-predicted current control. The switching sequence of the
power transistors in the power stage and the controller design
achieve fixed-frequency operation with an optimized duty-cycle
allocation, to deal with static and dynamic unbalanced loading
conditions of different channels. The proposed control scheme
reduces average inductor current for reducing conduction loss
and cross regulation during load transients.
Keywords—Auto buck-boost; SIMO dc-dc converter.
I. INTRODUCTION
Single-inductor multiple-output (SIMO) dc-dc converter is
a potential solution to provide different supply voltages and
output power to an IC system [1]–[4]. Typically, multiple and
variable supply voltages are needed in an IC system to achieve
power-performance optimization in different operation modes
such as the standby, normal and full-power conditions. In some
cases such as when an embedded processor working under
dynamic-voltage scaling (DVS), the provided supply voltage is
not always fixed. The supply voltage is sometimes lower than
or higher than the source voltage, to achieve power-saving in
the standby mode and to provide high power in the full-power
mode, respectively. Therefore, neither buck converter nor fixed
boost converter is suitable, and in general, non-inverting
flyback (NIF) converter is commonly used. However, due to
the switching sequence of the power transistors in the power
stage, the average inductor current of a NIF converter is much
higher than those of the buck and boost counterparts [2]. As a
result, the conduction loss due to non-zero on-resistance of the
power transistors, routing resistance and bondwire resistance
are high when the average inductor current is high. This
significantly degrades the overall power efficiency of a NIF
SIMO converter. Moreover, fixed-frequency operation is
generally preferred since the known frequency of the switching
noise can be reduced by well-designed filters. However, fixed
frequency for SIMO converter implies that the duty cycle for
each channel is no longer independent of each other, which
contributes to cross-regulation problem [1]. As a result,
algorithms for evaluating optimized duty cycles for each
channel are needed.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, this paper
introduces a fixed-frequency auto-buck-boost SIMO dc-dc
converter with duty-cycle redistribution and duty-predicted
current control technique, to cover a wide range of output
voltage and output current. The proposed control scheme will
be demonstrated by the operation to achieve low average
inductor current and hence high power efficiency.
II. R
EVIEW OF NIF SCHEME
To understand the drawbacks of the NIF scheme in the
SIMO dc-dc converter design, some important backgrounds of
a SIMO dc-dc converter are included in this section. Fig. 1(a)
shows a well-known power stage of a SIMO dc-dc converter
which provides N output voltages (i.e. V
O1
, V
O2
, …, V
ON
) and
their corresponding output currents (i.e. I
O1
, I
O2
, …, I
ON
) from
the source voltage (V
IN
). There is only a single inductor (L
1
)
and N output capacitors (C
1
to C
N
). It is noted that I
L
is the
inductor current of L
1
. The ON/OFF of the power switches
(SW1−SW3 and SW1X−SWNX) are controlled by a
controller/driver circuit where its operation is based on the
feedback voltages from the N outputs and the sensed inductor
The work described in this paper was partly supported by grants from the
Research Grant Council of Hong Kong SAR Government under project
number CUHK 414210, and by a grant from National Natural Science
Foundation of China under 61204035.
time
I
L
1
slope 0
IN ON
VV
L
−
=>
Buck (V
ON
< V
IN
)
time
I
L
Boost (V
ON
> V
IN
)
1
slope 0
IN ON
VV
L
−
=<
time
I
L
0
0
slope
1
>
=
L
V
IN
Charging case
Fig. 1(b)
Fig. 1(c)
Fig. 1(d)
time
I
L
Power-delivering case without supply (Discharging case)
1
0
slope 0
ON
V
L
−
=<
Fig. 1(e)
Fig. 1(a)
L
1
V
ON
I
ON
C
N
I
L
SW2
SWNX
V
X2
V
X1
C
IN
L
1
I
L
SW1
SW3
V
X1
V
X2
V
IN
time
I
L
Freewheel case
0
00
slope
1
=
−
=
L
L
1
I
L
SW2 SW3
V
X2
V
X1
L
1
V
ON
I
ON
C
N
V
IN
C
IN
I
L
SW1
SWNX
V
X1
V
X2
Power-delivering case with supply
L
1
C
IN
V
IN
I
L
C
1
C
2
C
N
V
ON
V
O2
V
O1
I
O1
I
O2
I
ON
SW1
SW2
SW3
SW1X
SW2X
SWNX
V
X1
V
X2
V
O1
SW1
SW2
SW3
SW1X
SW2X SWNX
Controller
V
O2
V
ON
kI
L
Sensed inductor current
where k (<< 1) is scalar
Driver
Fig. 1. (a) A SIMO dc-dc converter, (b)−(e) Four possible switchin
combinations and the corresponding inductor
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