Design of a hybrid, current-sourced switched-capacitor converter for data center power delivery

Powering processors in data centers requires a high-conversion step-down to a low voltage (∼1 V) for a power demand in the range of hundreds of watts. It is desirable to design a power converter capable of delivering this high-current power while being physically close to the processor to reduce ohmic losses. Recent research has focused on developing point-of-load (PoL) converters for this application, with an emphasis on converter efficiency and power density. However, what is not addressed is how that power will bedelivered from the converter to the processor load. Pin connections and the printed circuit board power delivery network are not lossless mechanisms. This is a connection that will see very high current, and, thus, ohmic losses are of concern. It is possible for converters to be integrated on-chip, however, magnetic device technology is not capable of being integrated well enough to perform well. As such, the high-performing converters seen in the literature could not be integrated in this way due to their use of magnetics. This work presents a hybrid switched-capacitor converter design where all magnetics are located at the input of the converter. This way, the rest of the converter could be integrated into a chip and the pin connections for the magnetics are at a location where there is low current. The converter design presented in this work implements a current-source buck converter and series-parallel switched-capacitor converter to create a converter topology that achieves this goal. Additional analysis is done on the operation of this converter with simulation in LTSpice. A 48:6 PCB prototype of the converter is designed and tested, achieving a peak efficiency of 91.9%.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical & Computer Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Delmar, Aria

Contributors dc:contributor

• Stillwell, Andrew

• Switched-capacitor Converter
• Data Center Power Delivery

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Aria Delmar

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121275

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F121275