A 6A, 2.5MHz integrated dual-phase DC-DC buck converter with low quiescent consumption for mobile devices

With the development of application processors in mobile device, the power supply is required to have high current driving capability and low standby power consumption. In this paper, a novel dual-phase DC-DC buck converter with low quiescent consumption is proposed to meet the demand. Apart from conventional PWM/PFM mixed control, an extra power-save mode (PSM) is designed in the converter to minimize the power consumption at extremely light load. The converter is designed, simulated and fabricated in 0.18 μm Global Foundry BCD technology. The experimental results show that the chip could provide maximum output current of 6 A. With PSM, the current consumption of the chip was reduced by up to 96% under light load condition and the standby quiescent current was 6 μA.