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Micro-Transformers
Baoxing Chen
Analog Devices Inc.
804 Woburn Street
Wilmington, MA 01887 USA
Abstract-We demonstrated a fully integrated isolated dc-dc with coreless on chip transformers. Batching processing nature
converter using coreless micro-transformers. The transformers of the IC process has the potential to reduce the cost of
are switched resonantly at 170 MHz to achieve efficient energy individual power components. Moreover, mature IC
transfer while the energy regulation is realized through a 500
KHz PWM feedback signal which controls the duty cycle that
techniques produce high quality insulation layers, and
this 170 MHz resonant action is left on. Both the transformer integrated dc-dc converters typically have superior isolation
switches and Schottky diodes used for rectification are rating and higher reliability than those with discrete
implemented on chip. 5kV isolation is achieved through 20m transformers.
thick polyimide layers sandwiched in between the primary coils
and the secondary coils. The feedback PWM signal is transmitted II. CONVERTER ARCHITECTURE
across isolation barrier with on-chip transformers also through
The fully integrated converter architecture is shown in Fig.
appropriate encoding and decoding. The converter packaged in a
16L Small-Outline Integrated Circuit (SOIC) is measured to 1. Two 0.6m high voltage CMOS switches implemented in a
deliver 0.5W isolated power at 33% efficiency. cross-coupled configuration together with the transformer
form sustaining oscillation. The transformer with its center
I. INTRODUCTION tape connected to VDD is switched resonantly at 170MHz to
Integration of power electronics components has attracted a achieve efficient energy transfer. The integrated Schottky
lot of research interest recently [1]. There is a growing diodes were used as rectification devices. These diodes turn on
demand of portable electronics and handheld devices, and and recover fast enough for 170 MHz rectification. The diodes
miniaturization of power modules becomes highly desirable. need to be sized such that they stay in Schottky region during
However, integrated components such as inductors, rectification. To improve efficiency with varying load and
transformers, switches and diodes have large and sometime maintain voltage regulation, a feedback signal transformer was
prohibitive parasitic resistance. The integrated inductors and used. A 500 KHz feedback signal would turn on/off the
transformers are desired to operate at high frequency to have resonant transformer switching action instead of controlling
higher quality factor, but there are a few main difficulties to each transformer switch directly. This approach essentially
overcome to switch at high frequency. First, the switching loss separates the energy regulation from energy conversion
begins to dominate, so some form of resonant switching is allowing optimized power transfer and maintaining regulation.
needed. Second, the reverse recovery for the rectifying diodes The power device sizes including transformers can be
becomes appreciable. Last, the regulation is difficult to obtain optimized by studying the coupled resonator model as shown
at high frequency. A Vernier-regulated architecture has been in Fig. 2. The input impedance, voltage transfer function and
proposed to address some of these difficulties for high efficiency can be derived. The input capacitance is dominated
frequency dc-dc power conversion, where energy conversion by the drain capacitance of the MOS switches while the output
and regulation function are partitioned [2].
For isolated dc-dc converter, isolated transformers would be
needed. There would be magnetic core loss and degradation of
magnetization that would limit the high frequency operation.
Furthermore, the magnetic core in the system could
compromise the isolation rating of the transformer. With these
limitations for high frequency operation due to magnetic core
in mind, here we propose a dc-dc converter using coreless
micro-transformers. Coreless PCB transformers have been
proposed for using in an isolated dc-dc converter [3], 67%
transformer efficiency has been reported. However, they are
not compatible with state of art integrated circuit (IC) process
and this prevents its integration with other power components.
A fully integrated dc-dc converter is made possible by
integrating the switching components and rectification devices Figure 1. Power Transfer Block Diagram
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TABLE I transformers on separate chips, but in principle, the
POLYIMIDE PROPERTIES
transformers can be put on same chips for the MOS switches
Weight Loss =5% at T= ( ) 500 or Schottky diodes. The transformer process is compatible
CTE (ppm) 40~50 with standard CMOS processes. For the top transformer chip,
Tensile Strength (Mpa) >120 the two larger transformers are power transformers while the
Mechanical Elongation (%) >30 small transformer is for transmitting the feedback PWM signal.
Youngs Modulus (Gpa) 3.3 The bottom half of the snap shot including the bottom
Electrical Dielectric constant 3.3
transformer chips holds additional integrated isolation
Moisture Uptake (%) 0.8
functions. The integration of the isolated dc-dc converter
provides unprecedented possibilities for functional integration
Breakdown Voltage >400V/m
that can dramatically reduce the complexity, size and total cost
of the isolated system.
charge is bleed away. The devices can typically handle over
III. MEASUREMENT RESULTS
15kV ESD stresses. Other dielectric materials such as oxide
will not have this ESD tolerant characteristic and they will go The packaged converter as shown in Fig. 5 was tested. The
into avalanche once the ESD voltage level is over its dielectric converter provides an isolated DC output at 5V for up to
strength even though the energy can be very small. The 100mA. It has good supply regulation and load regulation.
polyimide we use has also very high thermal stability, its The transient response is also studied. Fig. 6 shows some
weight loss temperature is over 5000C and its glass transition operation waveforms. The right waveforms are the zoomed in
temperature is about 2600C. The polyimide has also high version of those to the left and the output voltage is offset at
mechanical stability, it has a tensile strength over 120MPa and 5V for the right waveforms so that we can examine the
it has a high elastic elongation of over 30%. In spite of its high transformer switching frequency by looking at the high
elongation, polyimide does not deform easily, its Youngs frequency output supply noises. Ch. 1 is the PWM signal, Ch.
Modulus is about 3.3Gpa. The polyimide has excellent 2 is the input supply and Ch. 3 is the isolated supply output.
chemical resistance. That is why it has been widely used for As we can see, the PWM frequency is about 446 kHz while
insulation coatings for the high voltage cables. High chemical the transformer switching frequency is about 170 MHz. Since
resistance also helps to facilitate IC processing on top of we use full wave rectification, the output supply noise
polyimide layers, for example, Au plating on top of polyimide frequency is twice the switching frequency. The converter
in our case. The polyimide has a dielectric constant of 3.3. efficiency is about 33% at full load it remains relatively
With small diameter coils and thick polyimide layers between constant all the way up to about 30% of the load and then
the coils, these devices have desirable small capacitance starts to drop below 30% efficiency for load under 20mA. The
across isolation barrier. load dependence for the converter efficiency is shown in Fig.
Figure 5 shows the complete converter chips inside a 16L 7. The main sources of the loss are the MOS switches, the
SOIC package. The left chip has the CMOS switches and the transformers and the Schottky diodes. The transformer itself
right chip has the rectification diodes and converter controller. has much higher efficiency and it is estimated to be better than
The transformer chips sit in the middle. This prototype has the 70%. The efficiency can be improved further by choosing
processes with MOS switches with less drain capacitance and
Schottky diodes with smaller junction capacitance. The
smaller capacitance will allow the operation of the converter
337
35
integration provides possibilities for total isolation system
integration and has huge potential to reduce total system
complexity and cost while improving the system reliability.
While the converter efficiency is only 33%, it is good enough
Efficiency %
for many low power applications and there is a lot of room for
30 future improvement.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I would like to thank iCoupler team members, especially
Susan Li, Flow Zhao, Alice Wang, Alice Huang, Angelo
25
Pagkalawangan and Ronn Kliger for their contributions.
0 20 40 60 80 100
Output Load Current (mA) REFERENCES
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639948, May. 2005.
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IV. CONCLUSION 2000.
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