A hybrid inductor‐current sensor with fast response and high accuracy using online calibration for high‐frequency BUCK DC‐DC converters

Abstract This paper introduces a hybrid inductor‐current sensor with fast response and high accuracy using online calibration for 25 MHz BUCK DC‐DC converter. The proposed inductor‐current sensor combines the high accuracy of the senseFET sensing method with the lossless and real‐time response characteristics of the RC filter technique. Comparing to exist techniques, the proposed calibration scheme can make filter coefficient converge even in unsteady state, which improve its effectiveness in practical application. Moreover, the proposed inductor‐current sensor utilizes sample‐based senseFET‐based current sensing to offer calibration reference, which avoid the use of high bandwidth amplifier. Digital current balance control is seamlessly integrated into the 25 MHz 2‐phase digital adaptive time‐controlled (AOT) BUCK DC‐DC converter through the utilization of the proposed hybrid inductor‐current sensor. The 2‐phase BUCK DC‐DC converter is implemented in a standard 0.18‐µm CMOS process. After online calibration, proposed hybrid inductor‐current sensor outputs a full‐wave waveform with high accuracy and low propagation delay of only 9 ns in post‐layout simulation.