An NMOS output-capacitorless low-dropout regulator with dynamic-strength event-driven charge pump

In this paper,an NMOS output-capacitorless low-dropout regulator(OCL-LDO)featuring dual-loop regulation has been proposed,achieving fast transient response with low power consumption.An event-driven charge pump(CP)loop with the dynamic strength control(DSC),is proposed in this paper,which overcomes trade-offs inherent in conventional structures.The presented design addresses and resolves the large signal stability issue,which has been previously overlooked in the event-driven charge pump structure.This breakthrough allows for the full exploitation of the charge-pump structure's poten-tial,particularly in enhancing transient recovery.Moreover,a dynamic error amplifier is utilized to attain precise regulation of the steady-state output voltage,leading to favorable static characteristics.A prototype chip has been fabricated in 65 nm CMOS technology.The measurement results show that the proposed OCL-LDO achieves a 410 nA low quiescent current(IQ)and can recover within 30 ns under 200 mA/10 ns loading change.

A Capacitor-Free CMOS Low-Dropout Regulator for System-on-Chip Application

A stable CMOS low drop-out regulator without an off-chip capacitor for system-on-chip application is presen- ted. By using an on-chip pole splitting technique and an on-chip pole-zero canceling technique, high stability is achieved without an off-chip capacitor. The chip was implemented in CSMC＇s 0.5μm CMOS technology and the die area is 600μm×480μm. The error of the output voltage due to line variation is less than -＋ 0.21% ,and the quiescent current is 39.8μA. The power supply rejection ratio at 100kHz is -33.9dB, and the output noise spectral densities at 100Hz and 100kHz are 1.65 and 0.89μV √Hz, respectively.

CMOS low-dropout regulator with 3.3 μA quiescent current without off-chip capacitor

A CMOS （complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor） low-dropout regulator （LDO） with 3. 3 V output voltage and 100 mA output current for system-on-chip applications to reduce board space and external pins is presented. By utilizing a dynamic slew-rate enhancement（SRE） circuit and nested Miller compensation （NMC） on the LDO structure, the proposed LDO provides high stability during line and load regulation without off-chip load capacitors. The overshot voltage is limited within 550 mV and the settling time is less than 50 μs when the load current decreases from 100 mA to 1 mA. By using a 30 nA reference current, the quiescent current is 3.3 μA. The proposed design is implemented by CSMC 0. 5 μm mixed-signal process. The experimental results agree with the simulation results.

An Ultra-Low Quiescent Current CMOS Low-Dropout Regulator with Small Output Voltage Variations

An ultra-low quiescent current low-dropout regulator with small output voltage variations and improved load regulation is presented in this paper. It makes use of dynamically-biased shunt feedback as the buffer stage and the LDO regulator can be stable for all load conditions. The proposed structure also employs a momentarily current-boosting circuit to reduce the output voltage to the normal value when output is switched from full load to no load. The whole circuit is designed in a 0.18 μm CMOS technology with a quiescent current of 550 nA. The maximum output voltage variation is less than 20 mV when used with 1 μF external capacitor.

A 200 mA CMOS low-dropout regulator with double frequency compensation techniques for SoC applications

This paper presents a 200 mA low-dropout （LDO） linear regulator using two modified techniques for frequency compensation. One technique is that the error amplifier uses a common source stage with variable load, which is controlled by the output current, is served as the second stage for a stable frequency response. The other technique is that the LDO uses a pole-zero tracking compensation technique at the error amplifier to achieve a good frequency response. The proposed circuit was fabricated and tested in HJTC 0.18 μm CMOS technology. The designed LDO linear regulator works under the input voltage of 2.8-5 V and provides up to 200 mA load current for an output voltage of 1.8 V. The total error of the output voltage due to line and load variation is less than 0.015%. The LDO die area is 630 x 550 μm^2 and the quiescent current is 130 μA.

A 3 A sink/source current fast transient response low-dropout Gm driven linear regulator

A 3 A sink/source G_m-driven CMOS low-dropout regulator（LDO）,specially designed for low input voltage and low cost,is presented by utilizing the structure of a current mirror G_m（transconductance）driving technique,which provides high stability as well as a fast load transient response.The proposed LDO was fabricated by a 0.5μm standard CMOS process,and the die size is as small as 1.0 mm^2.The proposed LDO dissipates 220μA of quiescent current in no-load conditions and is able to deliver up to 3 A of load current.The measured results show that the output voltage can be resumed within 2μs with a less than 1mV overshoot and undershoot in the output current step from-1.8 to 1.8 A with a 0.1μs rising and falling time at three 10μF ceramic capacitors.

A capacitor-free CMOS LDO regulator with AC-boosting and active-feedback frequency compensation

A capacitor-free CMOS low-dropout （LDO） regulator for system-on-chip （SoC） applications is presented. By adopting AC-boosting and active-feedback frequency compensation （ACB-AFFC）, the proposed LDO regulator, which is independent of an off-chip capacitor, provides high closed-loop stability. Moreover, a slew rate enhancement circuit is adopted to increase the slew rate and decrease the output voltage dips when the load current is suddenly switched from low to high. The LDO regulator is designed and fabricated in a 0.6 μm CMOS process. The active silicon area is only 770 × 472 μm2. Experimental results show that the total error of the output voltage due to line variation is less than ±0.197%. The load regulation is only 0.35 mV/mA when the load current changes from 0 to 100 mA.

A transient-enhanced NMOS low dropout voltage regulator with parallel feedback compensation

This paper presents a transient-enhanced NMOS low-dropout regulator （LDO） for portable applications with parallel feedback compensation. The parallel feedback structure adds a dynamic zero to get an adequate phase margin with a load current variation from 0 to 1 A. A class-AB error amplifier and a fast charging/discharging unit are adopted to enhance the transient performance. The proposed LDO has been implemented in a 0.35 μm BCD process. From experimental results, the regulator can operate with a minimum dropout voltage of 150 mV at a maximum 1 A load and IQ of 165 μA. Under the full range load current step, the voltage undershoot and overshoot of the proposed LDO are reduced to 38 mV and 27 mV respectively.

A dynamic-biased dual-loop-feedback CMOS LDO regulator with fast transient response

This paper presents a low-dropout regulator （LDO） for portable applications with dual-loop feedback and a dynamic bias circuit. The dual-loop feedback structure is adopted to reduce the output voltage spike and the response time of the LDO. The dynamic bias circuit enhances the slew rate at the gate of the power transistor. In addition, an adaptive miller compensation technique is employed, from which a single pole system is realized and over a 59~ phase margin is achieved under the full range of the load current. The proposed LDO has been implemented in a 0.6μm CMOS process. From the experimental results, the regulator can operate with a minimum dropout voltage of 200 mV at a maximum 300 mA load and IQ of 113μA. The line regulation and load regulation are improved to 0. l mV/V and 3.4 μV/mA due to the sufficient loop gain provided by the dual feedback loops. Under a full range load current step, the voltage spikes and the recovery time of the proposed LDO is reduced to 97 mV and 0.142 μs respectively.

A fully on-chip fast-transient NMOS low dropout voltage regulator with quasi floating gate pass element

This paper presents a fully on-chip NMOS low-dropout regulator（LDO） for portable applications with quasi floating gate pass element and fast transient response.The quasi floating gate structure makes the gate of the NMOS transistor only periodically charged or refreshed by the charge pump,which allows the charge pump to be a small economical circuit with small silicon area.In addition,a variable reference circuit is introduced enlarging the dynamic range of error amplifier during load transient.The proposed LDO has been implemented in a 0.35 μm BCD process.From experimental results,the regulator can operate with a minimum dropout voltage of 250 mV at a maximum 1 A load and Iq of 395 μA.Under full-range load current step,the voltage undershoot and overshoot of the proposed LDO are reduced to 50 and 26 mV,respectively.

Full on-chip and area-efficient CMOS LDO with zero to maximum load stability using adaptive frequency compensation

A full on-chip and area-efficient low-dropout linear regulator （LDO） is presented. By using the proposed adaptive frequency compensation （AFC） technique, full on-chip integration is achieved without compromising the LDO＇s stability in the full output current range. Meanwhile, the use of a compact pass transistor （the compact pass transistor serves as the gain fast roll-off output stage in the AFC technique） has enabled the LDO to be very areaefficient. The proposed LDO is implemented in standard 0.35 μm CMOS technology and occupies an active area as small as 220 × 320/zm^2, which is a reduction to 58% compared to state-of-the-art designs using technologies with the same feature size. Measurement results show that the LDO can deliver 0-60 mA output current with 54 μA quiescent current consumption and the regulated output voltage is 1.8 V with an input voltage range from 2 to 3.3 V.

A high-efficiency,low-noise power solution for a dual-channel GNSS RF receiver

A high-efficiency low-noise power solution for a dual-channel GNSS RF receiver is presented. The power solution involves a DC-DC buck converter and a followed low-dropout regulator （LDO）. The pulsewidth-modulation （PWM） control method is adopted for better noise performance. An improved low-power highfrequency PWM control circuit is proposed, which halves the average quiescent current of the buck converter to 80 μA by periodically shutting down the OTA. The size of the output stage has also been optimized to achieve high efficiency under a light load condition. In addition, a novel soft-start circuit based on a current limiter has been implemented to avoid inrush current. Fabricated with commercial 180-nm CMOS technology, the DC-DC converter achieves a peak efficiency of 93.1% under a 2 MHz working frequency. The whole receiver consumes only 20.2 mA from a 3.3 V power supply and has a noise figure of 2.5 dB.