Comparison of three topology candidates for 12 V VRM

Most of today's voltage regulation modules (VRMs) draw power from 5 V output of the silver box. For future applications, this voltage bus will be too low to be practical. In the future, distributed power systems (DPS) with 12 V or 48 V voltage bus, are more attractive solutions for servers and high-end workstations. This paper focuses primarily on the comparison of three 12 V VRM topology candidates: buck; tapped-inductor buck; and active-clamp couple-buck.