An 83% efficiency, 0.6V to 1V output switched-capacitor DC-DC converter for micro-watt power applications

This paper presents an efficient on-chip switched-capacitor DC-DC buck converter targeting μW power range applications. The proposed switched-capacitor converter has an input of 1.2V and generates multiple output voltage levels, namely 1V, 0.8V and 0.6V based on two digital bits. In addition, the switched-capacitor converter has the capability to drive a wide range of load currents from 10μA to 800μA that is set by the operating frequency. The proposed converter is designed and fabricated in 65nm low power CMOS technology and occupies an area of 0.43mm
²
. The design utilizes both MIM and MOS capacitances stacked above each other so that the system area and efficiency are optimized. The measured maximum power efficiency from silicon is 83% for a load current of 400μA at 0.8V.