SBIR Phase II: Integrated Voltage Regulators for Small Footprint, Efficient Power Delivery in Mobile Electronics

SBIR 第二阶段：集成稳压器，在移动电子产品中实现小尺寸、高效电力传输

• 批准号: 1353640
• 负责人: Wonyoung Kim
• 金额: $ 75万
• 依托单位: Lion Semiconductor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-04-01 至 2016-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1353640&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Integrated; Voltage

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project seeks to develop integrated voltage regulators (IVR) that are 10 times smaller than existing solutions. Power management ICs (PMICs) are chips in mobile electronic devices that deliver power from the battery to different chips (e.g., processor, memory). Existing PMICs use discrete board-level inductors to efficiently deliver power, but the problem is that inductors occupy a large area on the board. This is especially problematic in space-constrained mobile electronic devices. Mobile device manufacturers put tremendous amounts of effort to reduce square millimeters of board area to make room for additional semiconductor chips for new features. Using IVRs, mobile devices can have extra space that used to be dedicated to bulky discrete components for PMICs, and use that space to either include new chips for new features or increase the battery size for longer battery life. This project will first work on semiconductor test-chip prototypes that prove the idea of IVRs. Then, the next step is to demonstrate it in commercial mobile electronic devices. The goal of the project is to ship IVRs in high-volume smartphones and tablets by replacing existing PMICs.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is in saving board area and processor power consumption in mobile devices, which is crucial for continued innovation in mobile devices. Mobile device manufacturers always look for new features to add in their next generation products to differentiate themselves from competitors. New features often need additional chips, but the problem is that there is simply no area left in the mobile devices for new chips. One way to solve this is to shrink the battery and leave more room for chips, but this is unacceptable since it reduces battery life. The only way to keep introducing new features and chips is to reduce the existing board area. IVRs solve this burning need of mobile devices. Using IVRs, phones and tablets will have extra space in their board to include new features such as micro-projectors and ultra-accurate motion sensing. The technology developed from this project is essential in allowing mobile devices to keep improving with new features. This project aims to have a big impact in the fast-growing smartphone and tablet market with 1 billion and 250 million in annual shipments, respectively.

该小型企业创新研究 (SBIR) 第二阶段项目旨在开发比现有解决方案小 10 倍的集成稳压器 (IVR)。电源管理 IC (PMIC) 是移动电子设备中的芯片，可将电池的电力传输到不同的芯片（例如处理器、内存）。现有的PMIC使用分立的板级电感器来有效地提供功率，但问题是电感器在板上占据很大的面积。这在空间受限的移动电子设备中尤其成问题。移动设备制造商投入了大量精力来减少电路板面积，为新功能的额外半导体芯片腾出空间。使用 IVR，移动设备可以拥有额外的空间，这些空间过去专用于 PMIC 的笨重分立组件，并利用该空间来包含新芯片以实现新功能，或增加电池尺寸以延长电池寿命。该项目将首先研究半导体测试芯片原型，以证明 IVR 的想法。然后，下一步是在商用移动电子设备中进行演示。该项目的目标是通过替换现有的PMIC，在大批量智能手机和平板电脑中搭载IVR。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力在于节省移动设备的电路板面积和处理器功耗，这对于移动设备的持续创新至关重要。移动设备制造商总是寻求在下一代产品中添加新功能，以使自己与竞争对手区分开来。新功能通常需要额外的芯片，但问题是移动设备中根本没有足够的空间容纳新芯片。解决这个问题的一种方法是缩小电池尺寸，为芯片留出更多空间，但这是不可接受的，因为它会缩短电池寿命。不断推出新功能和芯片的唯一方法是减少现有的电路板面积。 IVR 解决了移动设备的这一迫切需求。使用 IVR，手机和平板电脑的主板上将有额外的空间，以包含微型投影仪和超精确运动感应等新功能。该项目开发的技术对于移动设备不断改进新功能至关重要。该项目旨在对快速增长的智能手机和平板电脑市场产生重大影响，年出货量分别为10亿部和2.5亿部。