A Reconfigurable Single-Inductor Multi-Stage Hybrid Converter for 1-Cell Battery Chargers

• Published in: IEEE journal of solid-state circuits Vol. 58; no. 12; pp. 1 - 16
• Main Authors: Hardy, Casey, Le, Hanh-Phuc
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-12-2023; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Battery chargers; Buck converters; Capacitors; Charging; Conversion ratio; dc–dc power converters; Electric potential; Inductors; Metal oxide semiconductors; power integrated circuits; pulsewidth modulation; Reconfiguration; Steady-state; switched capacitor (SC) circuits; switched mode power supplies; Switches; switching converters; Topology; Voltage
• ISSN: 0018-9200; 1558-173X
• DOI: 10.1109/JSSC.2023.3302841

This article presents a reconfigurable single-inductor multi-stage (SIMS) hybrid step-down converter that efficiently provides a wide range of voltage conversion ratios (VCRs) needed for 1-cell battery charging across a wide input voltage range of 5-24 V while moving the inductor away from the high-output current path. The inductor is used to couple two synchronous switched-capacitor stages to provide soft charging benefits to each stage. A prototype was implemented in a 0.18 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mu</tex-math> </inline-formula>m bipolar, complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor, double-diffused metal-oxide semiconductor (BCD) process with a die area of 9.4 mm<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">^{2}</tex-math> </inline-formula>. It extends reconfigurable switched-capacitor and merged multi-stage operation concepts to deliver a maximum output current of 5 A and achieves peak efficiencies of 94.8% and 92.4% from 5-and 24-V input supplies, respectively.