Technical article No trivial: how to reduce regulator size

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If you reduce the regulator size is also so simple. However, in most cases, the available board space is not always enough to accommodate all the components and the limited space needs to carry more features and functionality. High levels of integration and Moore's Law are very effective in reducing the size of the device, but they are less effective with DC / DC converters, which tend to occupy 30% to 50% of the system space. So, how can we break through this bottleneck?

Increasing the frequency of work is undoubtedly an obvious solution. Most point-of-load regulators are switching converters with buck topology. Increasing the switching frequency reduces the inductance and capacitance required to meet the regulator's design specifications. Since inductors and capacitors usually occupy most of the DC / DC converter space, this can be very effective, as shown in Figure 1 (a). But in fact it is not that simple. So, what is the reason?


Figure 1: Size comparison of 12VIN, 10AOUT buck converter (a) at 500kHz and series capacitor (b) at 2MHz per phase

Increasing the frequency blindly increases the power consumption. Switching frequency is proportional to the loss, each time switching power supply, will have energy consumption. Among them, the conversion efficiency and cooling may be the main problem. Today, most converters are limited to hundreds of kilohertz. Converters with frequencies higher than 1MHz are typically low-voltage (5V and below) and low-current (less than 1A) types.

It's time to look for other solutions beyond the buck. Buck converter has been the industry's main choice for decades, but at the same time it also has underlying flaws. Now we have introduced a new DC / DC converter topology optimized for high-voltage conversion point-of-load applications. The series capacitor step-down converter achieves several megahertz operating frequency without compromising efficiency. As shown in Figure 1 (b), the overall solution size has been significantly reduced. The TPS54A20-based series capacitor buck converter has the same input and output conditions as the buck converter in Figure 1 (a), but is eight times smaller in size than the latter. Ie 1,270 mm3 vs 157 mm3.


Figure 2: Height comparison of 12 VIN, 10 AOUT buck converter (a) at 500kHz and series capacitor (b) at 2MHz per phase

Regulator size reduction gives us more opportunities. Comparing the height profile shown in Figure 2, we can see that the conventional buck converter has a height of 4.8 millimeters, yet this height far exceeds the height limits of many systems for backside components. The low cross-section of the series capacitor step-down converter (1.2 mm high) allows you to place the regulator on the back of the board, thus releasing the valuable top side of the board. Prior to placing the entire 10A converter on its back was not practical before, because the passive components were too bulky, but now with the TPS54A20 everything is possible.

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