A 0.18-µm CMOS, 91%-Efficiency, 2-A Scalable Buck-Boost DC-DC Converter for LED Drivers

This paper presents a buck-boost dc-dc converter for LED drivers capable of delivering an output current ranging from 0.1 to 2 A and a variable output voltage ranging between 2 and 5 V, starting from an input voltage spanning from 2.7 to 5.5 V. The dc-dc converter, realized in a 0.18-μm CMOS technology with 5-V option, occupies an area of 4 mm 2 including pads. The circuit features automatic mode switching and dynamic sizing of the power transistors to achieve a peak efficiency of 91%. With a switching frequency of 2.5 MHz, the achieved line regulation is lower than 0.1% V -1 and the output voltage ripple is less than 10 mV. The obtained turn-on and load transient settling time are lower than 40 μs, thus allowing pulsed operation of the LEDs, as well as switching among LEDs of different colors.