High Performance Current Sensing Circuit for Current-Mode DC-DC Buck Converter

A simulation study of a current-mode direct current (DC)-DC buck converter is presented in this paper. The converter, with a fully integrated power module, is implemented by using sense method metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) and bipolar complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (BiCMOS) technology. When the MOSFET is used in a current sensor, the sensed inductor current with an internal ramp signal can be used for feedback control. In addition, the BiCMOS technology is applied in the converter for an accurate current sensing and a low power consumption. The DC-DC converter is designed using the standard 0.35 mu m CMOS process. An off-chip LC filter is designed with an inductance of 1 mH and a capacitance of 12.5 nF. The simulation results show that the error between the sensing signal and the inductor current can be controlled to be within 3%. The characteristics of the error amplification and output ripple are much improved, as compared to converters using conventional CMOS circuits.