The design of an ultra-low power buck regulator is proposed. The regulator is designed to be integrated with a single-chip wireless sensor network and provide high efficiency at low output currents to maximize the sensor's battery life. The maximum output current is 50 mA. Dynamic voltage scaling is also supported to further reduce total power dissipation. The no-load current of the complete regulator is less than 1 µA. Simulation results give an expected efficiency of over 80% at 20µW of output power and a peak efficiency of over 95%.
['Nathan Schemm', 'Sina Balkir', 'Michael W. Hoffman']
The design of an ultra-low power buck regulator supporting dynamic voltage scaling for wireless sensor networks