A 300‐mA load CMOS low‐dropout regulator without an external capacitor for SoC and embedded applications. (4th May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Huang, S.; Duan, Quanzhen; Guo, Tian; Cheng, Yaping; Yin, Jiaqi; Ding, Yue Min
• Is Part Of: International journal of circuit theory and applications. Volume 45:Number 12(2017:Dec.)
• Page Start: 2281
• Page End: 2289
• Publication Date: 2017-05-04
• Subjects: low‐dropout (LDO) regulator -- capacitor‐free -- heavy load -- light load; Electric circuit analysis -- Periodicals; 621.319205
• DOI: 10.1002/cta.2356
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0098-9886

Abstract

Summary: This study proposes a 300‐mA external capacitor‐free low‐dropout (LDO) regulator for system‐on‐chip and embedded applications. To achieve a full‐load range from 0 to 300 mA, a two‐scheme (a light‐load case and a heavy‐load case) operation LDO regulator with a novel control circuit is proposed. In the light‐load case (0–0.5 mA), only one P‐type metal–oxide–semiconductor input‐pair amplifier with a 10‐pF on‐chip capacitor is used to obtain a load current as low as 0. In the heavy‐load case (0.5 to 300 mA), both P‐type metal–oxide–semiconductor and N‐type metal–oxide–semiconductor differential input‐pair amplifiers with an assistant push‐pull stage are utilized to improve the stability of the LDO regulator and achieve a high slew rate and fast‐transient response. Measurements show an output voltage of 3.3 V and a full output load range from 0 to 300 mA. A line regulation of 1.66 mV/V and a load regulation of 0.0334 mV/mA are achieved. The measured power‐supply rejection ratio at 1 kHz is −65 dB, and the measured output noise is only 34 μV. The total active chip size is approximately 0.4 mm 2 with a standard 0.5 μm complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor process. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Abstract : This study proposes a 300‐mA external capacitor‐free low‐dropout regulator for system‐on‐chip and embedded applications. To achieve a full‐load range from 0 to 300 mA, a two‐scheme (a light‐load case and a heavy‐load case) operation LDO regulator with a novel control circuit is proposed. In the light‐load case (0–0.5 mA), only one P‐type metal–oxide–semiconductor input‐pair amplifier with a 10‐pF on‐chip capacitor is used to obtain a load current as low as 0. In the heavy‐load case (0.5–300 mA), both P‐type metal–oxide–semiconductor and N‐type metal–oxide–semiconductor differential input‐pair amplifiers with an assistant push‐pull stage are utilized to improve the stability of the regulator.