Tutorial: Charge Pump and Capacitive DCDC Converter Design

Capacitive charge pumps are gaining popularity due to their ease of integration and low EM radiation. Recent research and advances in process technology enable highly efficient, fully integrated DC-DC converters. After an overview of the application field for charge pumps, the tutorial overviews basic structures: the Dickson QP, the basic voltage doubler and the ladder converter, discussing their functionality and their components. Step-up and step-down converters are presented together with techniques to generate different voltage ratios. Advanced topics include ripple reduction by multiphase charge pumps, load and line regulation, control-loop design and design methodologies for optimal efficiency including reducing the influence of device parasitics.