A high efficiency wide-load-range asynchronous boost converter with time-based dual-mode control for SSD applications

A highly integrated, high-voltage dual-mode boost converter is presented for solid-state drive (SSD) applications, where standby mode efficiency with < 500 μA load is as critical as active mode efficiency with > 100 mA load. To enhance efficiency in light load condition and to achieve wide operation load range, loss minimization by balancing conduction and switching loss is adopted and dynamic power gating scheme is applied for PFM mode operation. Moreover, robust dual mode operation is implemented with time-based control scheme, which enables operation with lower peak current for optimal loss balancing. The proposed converter is fabricated in 130 nm CMOS process with an area of 1.7 mm2. The measured efficiency for supplying 12 V output from 5.5 V input is 91% at its peak and 85% with extremely light load of 200 μA. It also achieves wide load range of 34.6 dB for > 85% efficiency and 18.8 dB for > 90% efficiency.