CAREER: Multi-Frequency Multi-Output Switching Power Converters for Dynamic Energy Distribution in Highly Integrated Systems

职业生涯：用于高度集成系统中动态能量分配的多频多输出开关电源转换器智能优点：随着技术扩展在降低高度集成系统中的功耗方面的回报递减，研究人员正朝着将系统划分为许多子组件并在任何给定时间动态调整其电源以满足其确切需求的方向发展。为了使其有效，需要以最小的成本和占用空间实施大量高效的电源。这些电源必须具有较宽的带宽才能实现动态按需操作。这项研究的目标是开发新的电源架构，能够仅使用集成电容器和单个共享电感高效地产生大量带宽超过500 MHz的电源域。这将通过采用单步功率转换的方法来避免级联功率转换器导致的效率下降，并通过提出多频单电感多输出功率转换器的拓扑来实现大量的电源域。在这种新的拓扑结构中，从主能源到多个输出的能量分配速率与能量切换速率解耦，因此，输出带宽不再受到输入端低频切换的限制。通过将高频能量分配到输出，可以获得非常快的瞬时响应，并且可以缩小所需的输出电容器并将其集成在芯片上，从而将片外元件限制在单个电感中。更广泛的影响：拟议的研究侧重于高度集成系统中的电力转换和分配这一关键领域，以应对对高能效、高成本效益和小体积解决方案日益增长的需求。建议的电源转换拓扑将克服实施大量电源的根本挑战，同时保持高效率、实现宽带宽、占用空间和成本较小。这将实现电源的高速动态适配，从而显著降低高度集成系统的功耗。这样做的能力不仅对电池供电的设备具有变革性，对散热至关重要的非电池供电的设备也是如此。拟议项目的教育部分将有助于填补美国电气工程教育的一个严重空白，在美国，传统的电力电子和集成电路课程既不涵盖集成电源设计，也不涵盖集成电源设计。拟议与德克萨斯大学泛美分校合作开展的涉及拉美裔学生的外联活动将进一步促进少数群体在科学和工程领域的参与。

CAREER: Multi-Frequency Multi-Output Switching Power Converters for Dynamic Energy Distribution in Highly Integrated Systems Intellectual Merit: With the diminishing returns of technology scaling in terms of reducing power consumption in highly integrated systems, researchers are moving towards dividing the system into many sub-components and dynamically adapting their power supplies to their exact demand at any given time. For this to be effective there is a need to implement numerous highly-efficient power supplies with minimal cost and footprint. These power supplies must feature wide bandwidth to enable dynamic demand-based operation. The goal of this research is to develop new power supply architectures that are capable of efficiently generating large number of power domains with over 500MHz bandwidth using only integrated capacitors and a single shared inductor. This will be accomplished by adopting a single-step power conversion approach to avoid efficiency degradation due to cascaded power converters, and implementing the large number of power domains by proposing a Multi-Frequency Single-Inductor-Multiple-Output power converter topology. In this new topology, the rate of energy switching from the main energy source is decoupled from the rate of energy distribution to the multiple outputs, and therefore, the output bandwidth becomes no longer limited by low frequency switching at the input side. By using high frequency energy distribution to the outputs, very fast transient response can be achieved and the output capacitors required can be scaled-down and integrated on-chip, thus limiting off-chip components to a single inductor. Broader Impact: The proposed research focuses on the critical area of power conversion and distribution in highly integrated systems in response to the growing demand for energy-efficient, cost-effective, and small footprint solutions. The proposed power conversion topology will overcome the fundamental challenge of implementing a large number of power supplies while also preserving high efficiency, achieving wide bandwidth, and small footprint and cost. This will enable high speed dynamic adaptation of power supplies, which will significantly reduce power consumption in highly integrated systems. The ability to do that will be transformational not only for battery-operated devices, but also in non-battery-operated ones where heat dissipation is critical. The educational component of the proposed project will help contribute to filling a serious gap in electrical engineering education in the US, where integrated power supply design is neither covered under traditional power electronics, nor integrated circuits curriculums. The proposed outreach activities in collaboration with the University of Texas-Pan American involving Hispanic students will further contribute to improving participation by minority groups in the field of science and engineering.