A Regulated 48V-to-1V/100A 90.9%-Efficient Hybrid Converter for POL Applications in Data Centers and Telecommunication Systems

This paper describes the topology, fundamental operations, and key characteristics of a Dual-Phase Multi-Inductor Hybrid (DP-MIH) Converter for Point of Load (POL) telecommunication and data center applications. The circuit topology employs a unique configuration of switched inductor and capacitor pairs to achieve complete soft charging and native voltage balancing of flying capacitors regardless of mismatches and variations in capacitor and inductor values. The converter topology and its operation are verified by a five-level DP-MIH converter prototype capable of delivering maximum load of 100A at 1V-5V regulated output voltages from a 48V input supply. It achieves 90.9% peak efficiency and 440 w/in3 power density for 48V-to-1V conversion and 95.3% and 2200W/in3 for a 48V-to-5V conversion.

[1]  Jason T. Stauth,et al.  A 48V:2V flying capacitor multilevel converter using current-limit control for flying capacitor balance , 2017, 2017 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC).

[2]  Hanh-Phuc Le,et al.  A 95%-Efficient 48V-to-1V/10A VRM Hybrid Converter Using Interleaved Dual Inductors , 2018, 2018 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE).

[3]  Ashish Kumar,et al.  Single-stage isolated 48V-to-1.8V point-of-load converter utilizing an impedance control network and integrated magnetic structures , 2017, 2017 IEEE 18th Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL).

[4]  Hanh-Phuc Le,et al.  A 120V-to-1.8V 91.5%-Efficient 36-W Dual-Inductor Hybrid Converter with Natural Soft-charging Operations for Direct Extreme Conversion Ratios , 2018, 2018 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE).

[5]  Robert C. N. Pilawa-Podgurski,et al.  Split-phase control: Achieving complete soft-charging operation of a dickson switched-capacitor converter , 2014, 2014 IEEE 15th Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL).

[6]  K. Nishijima,et al.  A two-phase high step down coupled-inductor converter for next generation low voltage CPU , 2011, 8th International Conference on Power Electronics - ECCE Asia.

[7]  Fred C. Lee,et al.  High-efficiency high-power-density 48/1V sigma converter voltage regulator module , 2017, 2017 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC).

[8]  Robert C. N. Pilawa-Podgurski,et al.  A GaN-based 97% efficient hybrid switched-capacitor converter with lossless regulation capability , 2015, 2015 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE).

[9]  Pradeep S. Shenoy,et al.  Comparison of a Buck Converter and a Series Capacitor Buck Converter for High-Frequency, High-Conversion-Ratio Voltage Regulators , 2016, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[10]  Maurizio Salato Re-architecting 48V power systems with a novel non-isolated bus converter , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Telecommunications Energy Conference (INTELEC).

[11]  Fred C. Lee,et al.  Startup and control of high efficiency 48/1V sigma converter , 2017, 2017 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE).