SMART POWER CIRCUITS

Frank Praemassing
Infineon, Austria

Abstract
Semiconductors are fundamental building blocks to create trust in the context of Software Defined Applications (SDA). For example, higher levels of automated driving cars require a strong dependable power supply strategy, which is inherent to the Software Defined Vehicles (SDV) architecture evolution. The trend in re-partitioning of functional blocks through aggregation and integration are pivotal, as they lead to a remarkable reduction of 50% in the total number of ECUs originally present in the car. This enables reducing complexity and improving power-performance efficiency down to MCU level, where smart power-performance solution is a major differentiator.

Another driver paving the way for innovative Power Management Architectures are the high-performance computing for AI and supercomputing applications. They are pushing the power and performance exponentially which is shaping the complexity of systems on package.

The key contribution of this presentation is to give an overview of challenges, constraints and solutions of Power Management Systems (PMS) and Power Distribution Systems (PDS) for applications which require high availability of energy and fail-operational functions.

About the author
Frank Praemassing has been Mixed Signal Architect at Infineon Technologies AG since 2013. His focus is on system resources for ATV MCU’s, which include power and clock-management, standby controllers, and system mode management. Praemassing is a current member of the ISSCC Power Management Subcommittee. Praemassing was born in Adenau, Germany, in 1972. He holds a Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the Bochum University and PhD from University Duisburg-Essen. He joined Infineon Technologies AG in 2003.

 Praemassing firmly believes that the car of the future will be all-electric and autonomous, user-centric, fully connected and cyber-secured.

Sijun Du
Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands

Abstract
Internet-of-Things is bridging the physical world and the cyber world by employing many ubiquitous wireless sensors.  To power these sensors, conventional power solutions using batteries are impractical due to the impossible tasks of recharging or replacing these batteries for an enormous number of autonomous sensors. To address this, harvesting energy from the environment has become a promising solution to power these ubiquitous sensors. Due to the required power level and enormous number of these sensors, the efficiency and system cost are critical factors for commercialization and real-world applications. In this talk, recent developments in kinetic energy harvesting circuits are reviewed, with a focus on techniques to improve energy extraction performance for higher efficiencies, and reduce the number of off-chip components for lower system costs.

About the author
Sijun Du received the B.Eng. degree in electrical engineering from the University Pierre and Marie Curie (UPMC), Paris, France, in 2011, the M.Sc. degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Imperial College, London, U.K., in 2012, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K., in January 2018. He was a Post-Doctoral Researcher with the Berkeley Wireless Research Center (BWRC), Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS), University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA, from 2018 to 2020. In 2020, he joined the Department of Microelectronics, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Delft, The Netherlands, where he is currently an Assistant Professor.

His current research is focused on energy-efficient integrated circuits and systems, including power management integrated circuits (PMIC), energy harvesting, wireless power transfer, and dc/dc converters used in the Internet-of-Things (IoT) wireless sensors, wearable electronics, biomedical devices, and microrobots.

Elisa Messina, Enci Zhang, Taekwang Jang (Presenter)
ETH Zürich, Switzerland

Abstract
This presentation introduces DC-DC converter architectures and circuit techniques. Recent computational loads impose significant power output demands on DC-DC converters, while ever-shrinking Internet of Things (IoT) systems demand DC-DC converters with small footprints. Consequently, fully integrated DC-DC converters are highly desirable in contemporary power delivery architectures thanks to their compact footprint, high power density, and fast output regulation. This talk provides a comprehensive review on the recent innovations in fully integrated DC-DC converters, enabling higher efficiency and power density.

About the author
Taekwang Jang received his B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from KAIST, Korea, in 2006 and 2008, respectively. From 2008 to 2013, he worked at Samsung Electronics Company Ltd. In 2017, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at the same institution. In 2018, he joined ETH Zürich as an assistant professor and is leading the Energy-Efficient Circuits and Intelligent Systems group.

He focuses on circuits and systems for highly energy-constrained applications such as wireless sensors and biomedical interfaces. He holds 15 patents and has (co)authored more than 80 peer-reviewed conferences and journal articles. He is the recipient of the 2024 IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society New Frontier Award, the IEEE ISSCC 2021 and 2022 Jan Van Vessem Award for Outstanding European Paper, the IEEE ISSCC 2022 Outstanding Forum Speaker Award, and the 2009 IEEE CAS Guillemin-Cauer Best Paper Award. Since 2022, he has been a TPC member of the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference, and IEEE Asian Solid-State Circuits Conference. Since 2023, he has been serving as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Solid-State Circuits and was appointed as a Distinguished Lecturer for the Solid-State Circuits Society in 2024.

Henk Jan Bergveld¹, John Pigott², Gerard Villar Piqué¹, Vikram Chaturvedi¹, Mojtaba Ashourloo³, Nameer Khan³, Wan Lin Jiang³, Olivier Trescases³

Affiliations
¹NXP Semiconductors, Eindhoven, Netherlands,
²NXP Semiconductors, Chandler, AZ, USA
³University of Toronto, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Toronto, Canada

Abstract
The increasing use of electric vehicles (EVs) with autonomous-driving functionality leads to various challenges for the on-board power supply network. First of all, autonomous-driving features are increasing the load power demands, pushing the existing 12-V system to its maximum capacity and resulting in the development of a complementary 48-V bus. Second, any failure in the power supply to onboard processors in autonomous vehicles can be catastrophic, which motivates the need for a fault-tolerant power management IC (PMIC). Third, these processors have low supply voltages below 1 V with severe regulation requirements, which are typically met using large and costly decoupling capacitors. In this talk, various innovations are introduced to deal with these challenges, exploiting hybrid power topologies to bridge the large voltage gap between 48V and either 3.3V or 0.8V. For 48V-to-3.3V conversion, single-point short-circuit or open-circuit fault detection and mitigation schemes for a multiphase converter will be highlighted. Moreover, several auxiliary-assisted 48V-to-0.8V schemes will be introduced to reduce large decoupling capacitance on the 0.8V supply to the automotive processor. Results obtained with discrete demonstrators as well as exploiting custom-built power ICs will be presented.   

About the author
Henk Jan Bergveld was born in Enschede, the Netherlands, in 1970. He received the M.Sc. degree (cum laude) and the Ph.D. degree (cum laude) in electrical engineering from the University of Twente, Enschede, in 1994 and 2001, respectively. He joined Philips Research Laboratories, Eindhoven, the Netherlands, in 1994. His research interest was modelling of rechargeable batteries to design improved battery management systems. This work resulted in his Ph.D. degree and the book Battery Management Systems – Design by modelling (Boston, MA: Kluwer, 2002). He is currently a power management architect and Fellow/Senior Director in the CTO department with NXP Semiconductors in Eindhoven, as well as Part-time Professor “Embedded Control in Energy Management” at Eindhoven University of Technology. His main research interests include (fully integrated) DC/DC converters, and battery management systems. Dr. Bergveld served on the technical program committee of the IEEE Symposium on VLSI Circuits from 2012-2015.

Michael Basler
Fraunhofer IAF, Germany

Niklas Deneke
Institute of Microelectronic Systems, Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany

Abstract
The transition to an all-electric society depends on innovations in power electronics, with GaN technology emerging as a key enabler. This presentation will explore the transformative potential of GaN in designing high-performance and sustainable energy systems. A pivotal aspect is the shift from the 600 V to the 1200 V voltage class, a decisive step toward enhanced energy efficiency and compact system designs, particularly in electromobility.

The talk gives an overview of lateral GaN technology, starting from substrate choice, epitaxy with buffer and AlGaN/GaN heterostructure, gate modules and the various active and passive devices and components that can be realized and used for IC designs. Innovative approaches will be introduced to address bidirectional conduction and blocking behaviour of GaN power devices, alongside advancements in the 1200 V class.

Additionally, we will examine GaN power ICs, presenting the latest developments in integration. An overview of building blocks is given, including the monolithic integration of gate drivers, sensors, and protection functions. Finally, we will show novel GaN IC examples suitable for AC/DC conversion in a totem-pole PFC, DC-DC conversion in 48 V systems and DC/AC conversion for BLDC inverters.

About the author
M. Basler received the M.Sc. degree in power and microelectronics from Reutlingen University, Germany, in 2018, and the Ph.D. degree in sustainable system engineering from the University of Freiburg, Germany, 2023. Since 2019, he has worked as a Research Associate with the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF, Freiburg, Germany, where he is involved in the development, design and characterization of GaN-based devices and ICs for power electronic applications.

Since 2019, he has also been a lecturer of power electronics in the electrical engineering course at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) of Lörrach, Germany. He is author or co-author of more than 40 publications and one patent application. In 2021, he was nominated for the PCIM Young Engineer Award and won the Best PhD Award of the “European PhD School: Power Electronics, Electrical Machines, Energy Control and Power Systems”. For his work “Monolithic Integration for GaN Power ICs” he was honored with the Semikron Young Engineer Award in 2022. In 2024, he received the Best Oral Presentation Award at WiPDA Europe.

Robert Torrent
Monolithic Power Systems, Spain

Abstract
Datacenter, cloud and more recently AI industries are rapidly evolving and achieving greater levels of complexity in terms of power and current demand, safety, and efficiency. This result in keep getting tighter in fields like power density, efficiency, response times, robustness, space utilization and cost.

To tackle these challenges, the industry adopted smart power circuits as the last power conversion stage before reaching the load. Smart power circuits, such as board level discrete multi-phase buck converter topologies, consist of a digital controller and multiple DrMOS stages. DrMOS integrate analog, digital and power stages in the same chip to allow us to improve performance and meet the requirements mentioned.

The goal of this presentation is to provide an introduction into this topology, and then a deep dive into the smart power circuits technology, benefits of usage and circuits that enable these devices.

About the author
Robert Torrent Beà is an application engineer at MPS at the Telecom product line at Barcelona Center. 

Has obtained the bachelor's degree in Automation and Industrial Electronic Engineering at Universitat de Lleida and the master's degree in Electronic Engineering in Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.
He has been working 2 years on multiple projects related to telecom applications such as power delivery network analysis and modelling, SPICE and SIMPLIS analysis for power integrity, transient response testing and understanding of voltage regulators principles.

His main interests are control techniques, VR modelling and Power Delivery Network analysis.