An 80-W 94.6%-Efficient Multi-Phase Multi-Inductor Hybrid Converter

Abstract

This paper presents a new Multi-Phase Multi-Inductor Hybrid (MP-MIH) converter that features high efficiency at large conversion ratios, while operating the switches with duty cycles larger than state-of-the-art hybrid topologies. In this converter, the capacitors are soft-charged and soft-discharged through three inductors operated in three interleaving phases. An experimental six-level three-phase converter prototype achieves 94.6% peak efficiency and 425 W/in3 power density for conversions from 48V to 1V-2V at loads of up to 40A. This multi-phase multi-inductor hybrid converter architecture can be extended to any number of switched-capacitor network levels to support wide range of input and output voltages and load currents in data centers, telecommunication and other high-performance digital systems.