Switched Mode Converters for Power Management Circuits

The objective of this project is to design and implement digitally controlled high efficiency DC-DC switching converters suitable for VLSI power management applications. The main challenge in this work is to develop a robust power management scheme to dynamically vary the supply voltage as a function of varying clock frequency for the VLSI chip. The purpose of this scheme is to provide supply voltages to the VLSI chip that is just sufficient to meet data processing speed requirement while minimizing the DC and MOS gate leakage (in deep sub-micron devices) power dissipation, thereby maintain optimized power consumption for all processing requirements. In addition, this project will also require the design and implementation of energy and area efficient on-chip voltage and temperature monitoring circuits to provide important information on the operating conditions to the power management system.

The student will be focusing on the design, implementation and testing of the interface and control circuits between multi-output DC-DC switching power supplies and the VLSI chip. The student will be introduced to various VLSI CAD tools such as Cadence and HSpice. He/She will also acquire design and testing experience of PCBs.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Wai Tung Ng

Student:

Sahil Sheth

Partner:

Discipline:

Engineering - computer / electrical

Sector:

Energy

University:

University of Toronto

Program: