Current-Sourced Hybrid Switched-Capacitor Converter for Data Center Power Delivery

This paper presents the design of a hybrid switched- capacitor converter (SCC) for data center point-of-load (PoL) power delivery. As processor technology trends towards higher power levels with low processor voltage levels, an alternative method for delivering the resulting high current is desired. Chip integration of the PoL converter is a possible solution with potential system-level benefits. Previous hybrid switched-capacitor power converters achieved high power density and high-efficiency conversion, but face limitations in chip-level integration due to reliance on magnetics as the output filter. Here, we propose a hybrid SCC with a current-sourced input stage and no magnetics at the output. By keeping the magnetics at the input, the converter design presented in this paper is capable of a system-in-package (SiP) or system-on-chip (SoC) implementation, with the magnetics connected externally at a low-current node. A 48 V to 6 V experimental hardware prototype is developed as a proof-of-concept, with results demonstrating a peak efficiency of 91.9%.