SBIR Phase I: Integrated Voltage Regulators for Small Footprint, Efficient Power Delivery in Multi-Core SoCs

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在开发比现有DC-DC转换器小20倍的集成电压调节器，并为处理器提供更好的电源管理。现代处理器使用大量的电压域来提高处理内核和IP块的能量利用率。问题是每个电压域都需要一个单独的DC-DC转换器，现有的转换器需要电路板组件，包括电感、电容器、电源开关和控制器芯片。因此，对于需要大量电压域的复杂处理器，电路板组件的数量急剧增加。这将导致较大的电路板面积开销，高组件成本和复杂的板级功率传输。该项目旨在开发一种单芯片稳压器，它消除了所有电路板组件，并将所有组件集成在一个芯片中，而不管稳压器需要向处理器提供多少电压。这种新的调节器将减少电路板占用空间，这在移动和数据中心应用中都非常重要，并降低组件成本。通过实现更高效、更精细的电源管理，该调节器还有可能将处理器的功耗降低多达30%。该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是减少从智能手机到数据中心的广泛应用中的处理器和逻辑芯片的电源传输解决方案的尺寸，成本和功耗。在智能手机中，电压调节器是除电池之外最大的部件之一。虽然消费者需要更轻、更薄的智能手机，但4G通信、微型投影仪和高分辨率摄像头等新功能对空间的需求越来越大。减小电压调节器的尺寸对于为下一代移动设备的新功能创造空间至关重要。此外，使用新的调节器节省处理器功率可以延长电池寿命。降低功耗和尺寸不仅对移动设备很重要，而且对部署在数据中心中的服务器处理器也很重要，这些服务器处理器需要支持不断增长的网络流量。节省处理器功率直接转化为降低数据中心的冷却成本和减少二氧化碳排放。通过减小调节器的尺寸，可以在有限的区域内存储更多的处理器，从而为数据中心创建更强大的服务器，而无需增加存储空间。新的稳压器将影响全球的处理器，有可能颠覆100亿美元的稳压器市场，并推动移动设备和服务器的进一步创新。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project seeks to develop integrated voltage regulators that are 20 times smaller than existing DC-DC converters and enable better power management for processors. Modern processors use a large number of voltage domains to improve energy utilization of processing cores and IP blocks. The problem is that each voltage domain requires a separate DC-DC converter and existing converters require board components including inductors, capacitors, power switch and a controller chip. As a result, the number of board components increases dramatically for complex processors that need a large number of voltage domains. This leads to large board area overhead, high component cost and complex board-level power delivery. This project aims to develop a single-die voltage regulator that eliminates all board components and integrates everything in a single die regardless of the number of voltages the regulator needs to provide to the processor. This new regulator will reduce board footprint, which is very important in both mobile and data-center applications, and reduce component cost. This regulator also has the potential to reduce power consumption of processors by up to 30% by enabling more efficient, finer-grain power management. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is reduction in size, cost and power consumption of power delivery solutions for processors and logic chips in a wide range of applications from smartphones to datacenters. In a smartphone, voltage regulators are one of the biggest components other than the battery. While customers demand lighter, thinner smartphones, increasingly more space is required for new features such as 4G communication, micro-projectors and high-resolution cameras. Reducing the size of voltage regulators is critical in creating space for new features in next-generation mobile devices. Moreover, saving processor power using the new regulator can increase battery life. Reducing power and size are not only important for mobile devices, but also for server processors deployed in data-centers necessary to support increasing web traffic. Saving processor power directly translates to lower cooling costs in data-centers and reduction in CO2 emission. By reducing the size of regulators, more processors can be stored in a limited area to create more powerful servers for data-centers without increasing real estate. Impacting processors across the globe, the new regulator has the potential to disrupt the $10B voltage regulator market and enable further innovation in mobile devices and servers.