Ultra fast fixed-frequency hysteretic buck converter with maximum charging current control and adaptive delay compensation for DVS applications

An integrated DC-DC hysteretic buck converter with ultrafast adaptive output transient response for reference tracking is presented. To achieve the fastest up-tracking speed, the maximum charging current control is introduced to charge up the output voltage with the maximum designed current. For down-tracking, the output is discharged by the load only to save energy. Although the converter works with hysteretic voltage mode control, an adaptive delay compensation scheme is employed to keep the switching frequency constant at 850 kHz to within +/- 2.5% across the whole operation range. The integrated buck converter was fabricated using a 0.35 mu m CMOS process. With an input voltage of 3 V, the output voltage can be regulated between 0.5 and 2.5 V. With a load resistor of 10 Omega, the up-tracking speed of the maximum reference step (0.5 to 2.5 V) is 12.5 mu s/V. All design features are verified by extensive measurements.