3-Level Buck Converter Microelectronic Implementation

Abstract

This chapter covers the microelectronic design and implementation of the 3-level converter design obtained in Chap. 6. The implementation of such design not only requires the integration of the reactive components and the power switches and drivers, but also includes the additional circuitry required to obtain the appropriate DCM operation.Therefore, the first section covers the design of all the required control circuits (which in this work are called as the secondary control loop). These include the implementation of two different control loops to assure near ideal dead-time switching, as well as the turn-off of the NMOS switches at zero inductor current. Additionally, the building blocks to generate all the required switching signals are also exposed. For all the presented circuits, the corresponding layout design is provided. In the second section, details about the power components layout are explained. Finally, the third section presents transistor-level simulation results from the complete developed system (including the power converter itself and the required control circuits), as well as the general layout distribution.