A comparative study of digital low dropout regulators

Granular power management in a power-efficient system on a chip(SoC)requires multiple integrated voltage regulators with a small area,process scalability,and low supply voltage.Conventional on-chip analog low-dropout regulators(ALDOs)can hardly meet these requirements,while digital LDOs(DLDOs)are good alternatives.However,the conventional DLDO,with synchronous control,has inherently slow transient response limited by the power-speed trade-off.Meanwhile,it has a poor power supply rejection(PSR),because the fully turned-on power switches in DLDO are vulnerable to power supply ripples.In this comparative study on DLDOs,first,we compare the pros and cons between ALDO and DLDO in general.Then,we summarize the recent DLDO advanced techniques for fast transient response and PSR enhancement.Finally,we discuss the design trends and possible directions of DLDO.

Integrated Multi-channel High Accuracy Current Control LED Driver with Low Dropout Regulator

This research describes an integrated multi-channel high accuracy current control LED （light emitting diode） driver with low dropout regulator implemented in a 0.35μm TSMC 2P4M CMOS process. With the new trend of backlighting applications for mobile electronics and portable devices requiring a smaller size, lower cost, lesser noise and accurate current control LED driver, it came up with the idea of integrating more than one design features within a single chip. The analysis of using a capacitor-less low dropout regulator to power the constant current source has been explored, with the implementation of wide range battery voltage of 3 V to 5 V. Possible load current variations were introduced and verified to output a fixed voltage of 2.8 V. A regulated cascode current mirror structure forms the multi-channel configuration string of LED＇s; the design ensures a current matching of less than 1% error and achieves a high accuracy current control of less than 1% error, regardless of the LED＇s forward voltage variation. Moreover, for high end portable device with multimedia applications, dimming frequency can be set to 10 MHz. In addition, a switching output is a better approach for managing LED＇s contrast and brightness adjustment as well as maximizing power consumption, ensuring longer life for driving string of LEDs.

Dual Micro-power 150mA Ultra LDO CMOS Regulator with Fast Startup

This paper presents a dual micro-power 150mA ultra LDO CMOS regulator,which is designed for high performance and small size portable wireless devices.The proposed LDO has been designed and simulated in 0.5μm 2P3M CMOS Process.It can guarantee 150mA output current per circuit and the leakage voltage is 60mV,1nA quiescent current when both are in shutdown mode,and it has 115μA ground current,output noise is 42μVrms,130μs fast turn-on circuitry and the junction temperature range is-40℃to 125℃.

A capacitor-free high PSR CMOS low dropout voltage regulator

This paper presents a capacitor-free CMOS low dropout voltage regulator which has high PSR perfor- mance and low chip area. Pole splitting and gm boosting techniques are employed to achieve good stability. The capacitor-free chip LDO was fabricated in commercial 0.18μm CMOS technology provided by GSMC （Shanghai, China）. Measured results show that the capacitor-free LDO has a stable output voltage 1.79 V, when supply voltage changes from 2.5 to 5 V, and the LDO is capable of driving maximum 100 mA load current. The LDO has high power supply rejection about -79 dB at low frequency and -40 dB at 1 MHz frequency, while sacrifice of the LDO＇s active chip-area is only smaller than 0.02 mm2.