Development of test equipment for evaluation of low-power AC/DC converter ASIC

Abstract

As always-on wireless sensing nodes become more and more common, improved AC/DC power conversion solutions for the output loads below 1 W are in increasing demand. Existing commercial solutions suffer from poor efficiency under these conditions, therefore a new approach is necessary. In our previous work, we proposed an AC/DC conversion stage optimized for these conditions specifically. It offers higher power efficiency and lower no-load consumption when compared to existing designs. The proposed conversion stage was since implemented and manufactured in a high-voltage CMOS process. The aim of this paper is to describe the process of measurement and verification of the manufactured samples. The development of the necessary test hardware, in a form of dedicated printed circuit boards, is also included in this paper. As the testing of the converter integrated circuit is still ongoing, only preliminary results are included so far.