A 12A 89.3% Peak Efficiency and 26mV Undershoot 12-to-1V Two-Stage Converter with Regulated Resonant Switched-Capacitor Regulators

The ever-hungry computing needs for data centers and automotive applications require a large output current at sub-1 V voltages. On the other hand, the input voltage of power converters must be raised to ease the 12R loss on the system voltage bus. The high input voltage and large output current requirements impose significant challenges on the converter efficiency, density, and speed, which are all crucially important for high performance computing devices. The two-stage-regulator approach emerges as a promising solution which interfaces the high input voltage with an intermediate bus converter (IBC) and supplies the processors with a high-density point of load converter (PoL), as is shown in Fig. 21.1.1 [1]–[5]. Usually, the IBC converts the high input voltage into a lower intermediate bus, $\mathsf{V}_{\mathsf{MlD}}$, with high efficiency while the low-voltage PoL achieves high density and fast responses. Compared with single stage 12V-to-1 V converters [6]–[18], the two-stage solution shows a better potential for vertical power delivery since the low-voltage PoL can fully exploit the advanced active/passive processes.