Study of performance degradations in DC-DC converter due to hot carrier stress by simulation

The hot carrier effects on the 0.25 mu m high voltage LDMOS has been examined by the accelerated stress experiment. Although the model parameters changed slightly, the switching performances degraded significantly, which have been simulated with the compact models extracted from the test devices by ICCAP. A full bridge DC-DC converter with the compact models was proposed in Cadence SpectreRF. The simulated results show that the efficiency of the full bridge DC-DC converter degraded significantly due to the hot carrier effects

Study Of Performance Degradations In Dc-Dc Converter Due To Hot Carrier Stress By Simulation

The hot carrier effects on the 0.25 μm high voltage LDMOS has been examined by the accelerated stress experiment. Although the model parameters changed slightly, the switching performances degraded significantly, which have been simulated with the compact models extracted from the test devices by ICCAP. A full bridge DC-DC converter with the compact models was proposed in Cadence SpectreRF. The simulated results show that the efficiency of the full bridge DC-DC converter degraded significantly due to the hot carrier effects. © 2006

Robustness and durability aspects in the design of power management circuits for IoT applications

With the increasing interest in the heterogeneous world of the “Internet of Things” (IoT), new compelling challenges arise in the field of electronic design, especially concerning the development of innovative power management solutions. Being this diffusion a consolidated reality nowadays, emerging needs like lifetime, durability and robustness are becoming the new watchwords for power management, being a common ground which can dramatically improve service life and confidence in these devices. The possibility to design nodes which do not need external power supply is a crucial point in this scenario. Moreover, the development of autonomous nodes which are substantially maintenance free, and which therefore can be placed in unreachable or harsh environments is another enabling aspect for the exploitation of this technology. In this respect, the study of energy harvesting techniques is increasingly earning interest again. Along with efficiency aspects, degradation aspects are the other main research field with respect to lifetime, durability and robustness of IoT devices, especially related to aging mechanisms which are peculiar in power management and power conversion circuits, like for example battery wear during usage or hot-carrier degradation (HCD) in power MOSFETs. In this thesis different aspects related to lifetime, durability and robustness in the field of power management circuits are studied, leading to interesting contributions. Innovative designs of DC/DC power converters are studied and developed, especially related to reliability aspects of the use of electrochemical cells as power sources. Moreover, an advanced IoT node is proposed, based on energy harvesting techniques, which features an intelligent dynamically adaptive power management circuit. As a further contribution, a novel algorithm is proposed, which is able to effectively estimate the efficiency of a DC/DC converter for photovoltaic applications at runtime. Finally, an innovative DC/DC power converter with embedded monitoring of hot-carrier degradation in power MOSFETs is designed