A 130 nm CMOS Power Management Unit with a Multi-Ratio Core SC DC-DC Converter for a Supercapacitor Power Supply

In recent years Switched Capacitor DC-DC Converters have been gaining interest as an attractive solution for implementing power management solutions in small scale low power systems, such as Internet of Things remote sensor nodes. Since SC circuits can be fully integrated in bulk CMOS technology, the number of external components is reduced, thus decreasing both the production costs and the volume of the system. This paper presents a power management unit using a multi-ratio SC DC-DC converter, and its controlling circuits, designed in a 130 nm bulk CMOS technology occupying an area of 0.138 mm². It provides a constant supply voltage of 0.9 V for a maximum output power of 1 mW, from an input supercapacitor voltage ranging from 1.2 V to 2.3 V. The measured results show a conversion efficiency peak of 80.4%.