TY - GEN
T1 - A resonant switched-capacitor converter with GaN transistors for series-stacked processors with 99.8% power delivery efficiency
AU - Stillwell, Andrew
AU - Pilawa Podgurski, Robert Carl Nikolai
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 IEEE.
PY - 2015/10/27
Y1 - 2015/10/27
N2 - The series-stacked architecture provides a method to increase power delivery efficiency to multiple processors. With a series-stack, Differential Power Processing (DPP) is needed to ensure that processor voltages remain within design limits as the individual loads vary. This work demonstrates a switched-capacitor (SC) converter to balance a stack of four ARM® Cortex-A8 based embedded computers. We investigate hard-switched and resonant modes of operation in a ladder SC DPP converter, implemented with GaN transistors. Excellent 5 V regulation of each embedded computer is demonstrated in a 4-series-stack configuration, with realistic computational work loads. Moreover, we demonstrate hot-swapping of individual computers with maintained voltage regulation at all nodes. A peak stack power delivery of 99.8% is demonstrated, and DPP switching frequencies from 250kHz to 2MHz.
AB - The series-stacked architecture provides a method to increase power delivery efficiency to multiple processors. With a series-stack, Differential Power Processing (DPP) is needed to ensure that processor voltages remain within design limits as the individual loads vary. This work demonstrates a switched-capacitor (SC) converter to balance a stack of four ARM® Cortex-A8 based embedded computers. We investigate hard-switched and resonant modes of operation in a ladder SC DPP converter, implemented with GaN transistors. Excellent 5 V regulation of each embedded computer is demonstrated in a 4-series-stack configuration, with realistic computational work loads. Moreover, we demonstrate hot-swapping of individual computers with maintained voltage regulation at all nodes. A peak stack power delivery of 99.8% is demonstrated, and DPP switching frequencies from 250kHz to 2MHz.
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U2 - 10.1109/ECCE.2015.7309739
DO - 10.1109/ECCE.2015.7309739
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84963628584
T3 - 2015 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, ECCE 2015
SP - 563
EP - 570
BT - 2015 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, ECCE 2015
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 7th Annual IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, ECCE 2015
Y2 - 20 September 2015 through 24 September 2015
ER -