[2023] Project 6 at Nexperia: Adaptive Capacitive Power Converter for On Board Supply

Background
The voltage of a rechargeable battery or supercapacitor is highly dependent on its state of charge. However, on chip systems often require a stable supply voltage that might need to be higher or lower than the voltage of the storage element. Capacitive power converters can convert power in a step-up and/or step-down manner efficiently and can provide a fully-integrated solution for making a system’s onboard power supply.

Goal
Design and optimization of a fully-integrated capacitive power converter to convert power from a storage element (rechargeable battery or supercapacitor) to the onboard supply rail.

The project focus lies on the schematic design of the fully-integrated power converter. Conceptual design trade-offs and optimization are done with the help of a mathematical model of the power converter. The schematic design allows for innovations with regard to the switch design and mitigating second-order effects. The optional layout design phase gives the designer the opportunity to further optimize the design for power density.

Assignment

• Literature study on power management and (fully integrated) capacitive power converters
• Conceptual study on fully integrated capacitive power converters with multiple conversion ratio settings
• Schematic design (mixed-signal IC) of a fully integrated capacitive power converter
• Verification of the above-mentioned schematic design for temperature, process and voltage variation
• Optionally: Layout design of the above-mentioned power converter

Requirements

MSc student in Electrical Engineering, the Microelectronics track. Please send me your list of courses, incl. the grades achieved, and a brief motivation email. An onsite interview will be part of the selection procedure.

Contact

Last modified: 2023-04-06