Fully-Integrated CMOS DC-DC Boost Converter

This paper presents a boost DC-DC power converter, which consists an RF oscillator at 2.3 GHz serving as DC-to-AC converter with an embedded DC rectifier to provide the first-stage DC-DC converter, and an RF-DC charge pump serving AC-to-DC converter with an input from the DC rectifier. Two differential, cross-coupled rectifiers as the charge pump circuit mitigate the reverse-leakage problem and they are cascaded to double the output voltage. The boost converter was implemented in the TSMC standard 0.18 mu m CMOS process. The die area is 0.992x1.118 mm2. The DC/DC converter can boost 0.6 V supply voltage to drive a red LED with normally 1.7 V operated bias for solar-cell and photovoltaics (PV) unit application.