A 32-phase 1200-Ampere DC/DC Converter for Data Center and Artificial Intelligence Systems

The paper presents a multiphase converter solution that provides 1200-Ampere current to server and artificial intelligence systems. Computing power in these systems keeps increasing, since CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs and ASICs demand higher and higher current from multiphase interleaved synchronous converters. More than twenty phases of power stage are required, but it is extremely difficult to design a digital pulse-width-modulation controller with more than twenty phases due to limitations in package size and control complexity. Phase paralleling is proposed in this paper to double phase number of a 16-phase digital controller to 32 phases. Contributing parameters that affect current imbalance between two paralleled phases are identified, and Monte-Carlo simulation is used to determine current sharing error between the two phases. A 32-phase synchronous buck converter board is built to demonstrate the 1200-Ampere power solution and accurate current balance during steady-state and dynamic load transient conditions that emulate load current in real data center and artificial intelligence systems.