Continuous Conduction Mode in Digital Control Loop of DC-DC

This paper discusses a novel approach for achieving continuous inductor current conduction within the discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) of a digital control loop in a Buck DC-DC converter. The method involves strategically generating and integrating smaller T<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ON</inf> and T<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">OFF</inf> durations within a single switching cycle of the discontinuous conduction mode to amplify the current driving capacity of the DC-DC converter while keeping the peak inductor current constant. Additionally, the paper presents a methodology for dynamically inserting Continuous Conduction Mode (CCM) cycles and updating the peak inductor current to optimize both current driving capacity and efficiency simultaneously. These advancements yield efficiency gains ranging from $3 \%$ to $5 \%$. The proposed approach is implemented using state-of-the-art 180 nm CMOS technology.