Analysis of Process-Dependent Maximal Switching Frequency, Choke Effect, and Its Relaxed Solution in High-Resolution DPWM

This letter uses the fanout-of-4 (FO4) metric to analyze the semiconductor process (SP) dependent maximal switching frequency (MSF) of a digital pulsewidth modulator (DPWM). After discussing the choke effect in a self-oscillating hybrid (SOH) DPWM and its impact on MSF, this letter further shows that separating the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and the delay mux line is an effective way to relax the choke effect so that the MSF in the SOH could be almost doubled, together with 10%-20% power saving. Taking a low-cost AMI06 SP and 9-bit-resolution specification as an example, this letter predicts that 8 MHz switching frequency could be achieved with the proposed SOH. The SOH chip was custom-designed and fabricated in a 0.703 mm² die via the metal oxide semiconductor implementation service (MOSIS) educational program. The chip test demonstrated that the MSF is 7.4 MHz with 1.07 mA power consumption, and the adjustable switching frequency range is from 1.8 to 7.4 MHz.