Empower Semiconductor Incorporated — Department of Energy SBIR Phase II: DE-FOA-0001736

Description

Empower Semiconductor has developed a resonant integrated voltage regulator (IVR) technology that can dramatically improve the energy efficiency of any digital CMOS IC. As Moore’s law has advanced, the plexity and power needs of digital ICs has grown dramatically. The voltages required by these ICs have lowered and the resulting voltage accuracy needs have become more stringent. Existing voltage regulator ICs (VRICs) have not kept pace and deliver power to these advanced digital ICs inefficiently with sub-par voltage regulation and transient response. A new resonant voltage regulator architecture has been invented which can power digital ICs with 5x improved voltage regulation and 1,000x faster transient response. The increased regulation serves to eliminate excess voltage which translates to significant energy savings. The dramatic increase in transient response enables dynamic voltage scaling which allows the digital IC to reduce its voltage within a few cycles when its full operation & voltage is not needed, thereby conserving further energy. In total,these significant improvements in speed and accuracy translate to up to 50% eduction in energy consumption for a digital IC. The new resonant regulator is fully CMOS compatible so It can be monolithically integrated with the digital IC it is powering, including integration of the regulator’s passive components. This benefit can apply to almost any electronic application requiring digital CMOS ICs including mobile, enterprise, industrial and electric vehicle applications.