A fully-integrated dual-mode switched-capacitor DC-DC converter with 75% efficiency for ultra-low-power biosensor systems

Xiaoyuan Wu; Shixiang Ding; Zitong Zhang; Chunqi Shi; Leilei Huang; Runxi Zhang; Yue Lu

doi:10.1587/elex.22.20250277

A fully-integrated dual-mode switched-capacitor DC-DC converter with 75% efficiency for ultra-low-power biosensor systems

Xiaoyuan Wu, Shixiang Ding, Zitong Zhang, Chunqi Shi, Leilei Huang, Runxi Zhang, Yue Lu

School of Communication and Electronic Engineering

East China Normal University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Letter › peer-review

Abstract

This paper presents a fully-integrated dual-mode switchedcapacitor (SC) DC-DC converter to supply always-on wake-up timer in biosensor systems. To balance chip area and conversion efficiency, optimal sizes of power switches, flying capacitor (C_fly) and output capacitor (C_out) in SC cell are determined through power loss analysis method. Power-on and self-powered modes (dual modes) under two voltage domains and an on-chip ultra-low-power (ULP) bias circuit are proposed to further improve the conversion efficiency. Furthermore, a hybrid self-biased current (HSBC) scheme is utilized to achieve low output voltage ripple. Implemented with a 40-nm CMOS process, this DC-DC converter can realize the voltage conversion from 1.8V to 0.4V. Measurement results show that the peak conversion efficiency reaches 75% at average load arriving 3µA, while the voltage ripple is below 12mV over 10 nA-5µA load range.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-6
Number of pages	6
Journal	IEICE Electronics Express
Volume	22
Issue number	15
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1587/elex.22.20250277
State	Published - 10 Aug 2025

Keywords

Integrated circuits
low-voltage ripple
pulse-frequency modulation
switched-capacitor DC-DC converter
ultra-low-power battery management

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10.1587/elex.22.20250277

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title = "A fully-integrated dual-mode switched-capacitor DC-DC converter with 75\% efficiency for ultra-low-power biosensor systems",

abstract = "This paper presents a fully-integrated dual-mode switchedcapacitor (SC) DC-DC converter to supply always-on wake-up timer in biosensor systems. To balance chip area and conversion efficiency, optimal sizes of power switches, flying capacitor (Cfly) and output capacitor (Cout) in SC cell are determined through power loss analysis method. Power-on and self-powered modes (dual modes) under two voltage domains and an on-chip ultra-low-power (ULP) bias circuit are proposed to further improve the conversion efficiency. Furthermore, a hybrid self-biased current (HSBC) scheme is utilized to achieve low output voltage ripple. Implemented with a 40-nm CMOS process, this DC-DC converter can realize the voltage conversion from 1.8V to 0.4V. Measurement results show that the peak conversion efficiency reaches 75\% at average load arriving 3µA, while the voltage ripple is below 12mV over 10 nA-5µA load range.",

keywords = "Integrated circuits, low-voltage ripple, pulse-frequency modulation, switched-capacitor DC-DC converter, ultra-low-power battery management",

author = "Xiaoyuan Wu and Shixiang Ding and Zitong Zhang and Chunqi Shi and Leilei Huang and Runxi Zhang and Yue Lu",

note = "Publisher Copyright: Copyright {\textcopyright} 2025 The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial, No Derivatives 4.0 License.",

year = "2025",

month = aug,

day = "10",

doi = "10.1587/elex.22.20250277",

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T1 - A fully-integrated dual-mode switched-capacitor DC-DC converter with 75% efficiency for ultra-low-power biosensor systems

AU - Wu, Xiaoyuan

AU - Ding, Shixiang

AU - Zhang, Zitong

AU - Shi, Chunqi

AU - Huang, Leilei

AU - Zhang, Runxi

AU - Lu, Yue

N1 - Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2025 The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial, No Derivatives 4.0 License.

PY - 2025/8/10

Y1 - 2025/8/10

N2 - This paper presents a fully-integrated dual-mode switchedcapacitor (SC) DC-DC converter to supply always-on wake-up timer in biosensor systems. To balance chip area and conversion efficiency, optimal sizes of power switches, flying capacitor (Cfly) and output capacitor (Cout) in SC cell are determined through power loss analysis method. Power-on and self-powered modes (dual modes) under two voltage domains and an on-chip ultra-low-power (ULP) bias circuit are proposed to further improve the conversion efficiency. Furthermore, a hybrid self-biased current (HSBC) scheme is utilized to achieve low output voltage ripple. Implemented with a 40-nm CMOS process, this DC-DC converter can realize the voltage conversion from 1.8V to 0.4V. Measurement results show that the peak conversion efficiency reaches 75% at average load arriving 3µA, while the voltage ripple is below 12mV over 10 nA-5µA load range.

AB - This paper presents a fully-integrated dual-mode switchedcapacitor (SC) DC-DC converter to supply always-on wake-up timer in biosensor systems. To balance chip area and conversion efficiency, optimal sizes of power switches, flying capacitor (Cfly) and output capacitor (Cout) in SC cell are determined through power loss analysis method. Power-on and self-powered modes (dual modes) under two voltage domains and an on-chip ultra-low-power (ULP) bias circuit are proposed to further improve the conversion efficiency. Furthermore, a hybrid self-biased current (HSBC) scheme is utilized to achieve low output voltage ripple. Implemented with a 40-nm CMOS process, this DC-DC converter can realize the voltage conversion from 1.8V to 0.4V. Measurement results show that the peak conversion efficiency reaches 75% at average load arriving 3µA, while the voltage ripple is below 12mV over 10 nA-5µA load range.

KW - Integrated circuits

KW - low-voltage ripple

KW - pulse-frequency modulation

KW - switched-capacitor DC-DC converter

KW - ultra-low-power battery management

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DO - 10.1587/elex.22.20250277

M3 - 快报

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SN - 1349-2543

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JO - IEICE Electronics Express

JF - IEICE Electronics Express

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ER -

A fully-integrated dual-mode switched-capacitor DC-DC converter with 75% efficiency for ultra-low-power biosensor systems

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