Ramp-Based Soft-Start Circuit with Soft-Recovery

for DC-DC Buck Converters

YUAN Bingl.2, LA! Xinquanl.2, YE Qiangl.2, WANG Hongy/, LI Yajun1,2
i

2
3

Institute of Electronic CAD, Xidian University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China

Key Lab of High-Speed Circuit Design and EMC, Ministry of Education

Institute of Microelectronics, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China

byuan@mail.xidian.edu.cn, xqlai@mail.xidian.edu.cn

Abstract-A soft-start circuit with soft-recovery function for

DC-DC converters is presented in this paper. The soft-start
strategy is based on a linearly ramped-up reference and an error
amplifier with minimum selector implemented with a three-limb
differential pair skillfully. The soft-recovery strategy is based on
a compact clamp circuit. The ramp voltage would be clamped
once the feedback voltage is detected lower than a threshold,
which could control the output to be recovered slowly and
linearly. A monolithic DC-DC buck converter with proposed
circuit has been fabricated with a O.5Jlm CMOS process for
validation. The measurement result shows that the ramp-based
soft-start and soft-recovery circuit have good performance and
agree well with the theoretical analysis.

Keywords-DC-DC buck converter; soft-start; soft-recovery;

inrush current; overshoot voltage
I.

II.

OPERATlON PRlNCIPLE

Generally speaking, DC-DC converter includes a PWM

switching regulator that works in a control loop converting the
error signal into a variable duty cycle of the driving signal for
the switching element. During startup transient, the feedback
voltage is zero and the sudden appearance of a large reference
voltage can result in a large error signal, which could cause
massive inrush current and voltage overshoot.
Fig. 1 shows the proposed ramp-based soft-start circuit
with soft-recovery function. Capacitor Cl is charged linearly
by a bias current. The minimum selector would select the
minimum value between the reference voltage VRI and the
linearly ramped-up voltage SS. The steady state of COMP is
defined by VRl, whereas the start-up transient is defined by
SS. Thus the voltages of FB and COMP would rise gradually

INTRODUCTION

with the increase of SS. And SS would be pulled to the highest

are

potential when start-up is ended. When a fault occurs such as

ICs,

over temperature or short circuit operation, soft-recovery is

especially DC-DC buck converters are critical building blocks

necessary, which is focused in this paper. In traditional circuit

in state-of-the-art portable applications [1]. Soft-start is a

the EA is unbalanced again when the feedback is pulled low.

feature commonly used in PWM control ICs to limit inrush

In our design, SS is clamped with FB by amplifier AI. The

In recent
increasingly

years,
in

battery-operated

great

demand.

portable

Power

devices

management

current and avoid output voltage overshoot during start-up

clamp circuit is active once FB is detected lower than

transient. This guarantees the duty cycle is progressively

reference VR2 (VR2<VRl). An offset is introduced in the

increased, which is employed on first powering of the chip.

differential pair to define COMP value. With the proposed

Many soft-start methods have been reported in the literature [2-

circuit, the system recovery is smooth and quite similar to the

5]. Unfortunately, soft-recovery techniques have not received

soft-start.

much attention. Besides first enabling of the chip, the power-up

transient

should

also

be

reduced

while

the

system

is

immediately recovered following the correction of a fault.

III.

PROPOSED SOFT-START AND SOFT-RECOVERY CIRCUIT

The circuit implementation and design considerations of

A soft-start circuit with soft-recovery function is presented

the proposed soft-start and soft-recovery circuit are described

in this paper. The soft-start strategy is based on a linearly

...........................................................

ramped-up reference and an error amplifier with minimum

selector

implemented

with

three-limb

differential

pair

skillfully. The soft-recovery strategy is based on a compact

clamp circuit. Once the feedback voltage is detected lower than
a threshold, the ramp voltage would be pulled low and clamped,
which could controls the output to be recovered slowly and
linearly. A monolithic current-mode DC-DC buck converter
with proposed circuit has been fabricated with a O.51lm CMOS
process for validation. The measurement result shows that the
ramp-based soft-start and soft-recovery circuit have good
performance and agree well with the theoretical analysis.

978-1-4673-2523-3/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE

Proposed clamp circuit with

"f'"w" f"""i""

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!
l.

................................................

Ramp-bused
wi""Wim.;'

FB

:=...................... ..................................................

.............

Fig. I.

Block diagram of proposed circuit in DC-DC converter.

below.

A. Clamp Circuit with Soft-Recovery

Fig. 2 shows the schematic of the proposed clamp circuit
with soft-recovery. The amplifier is formed by MI, M3,
M4-M7. The input differential pair is unbalanced for-purpose
in order to introduce an offset voltage Vos. The aspect ratio of
(W/L)M6:(W/L)M7=n: 1,

(W/L)M4:(WIL)Ms=I:I,

(W/L)Ml:(W/L)M3=IO:1. When FB is pulled lower than VR2,

the current flowing through MI pulls down SS, which would

(Ill
Fig. 4.

(b)

Measured waveforms (a)soft-start

(b)short circuit recovery

be clamped to VFB+VOS. The clamp circuit plays no role in the

need for an external Schottky diode. The high side and low side

normal operation. The offset voltage can be obtained as:

switch on-resistance are only SOmQ and 30mQ, respectively.

The measured waveform of soft-start with input voltage of SV,
output voltage of 3.3V and load current of SA is shown in Fig.
4(a). The reference voltages of VRI and VR2 are O.SV and
O.4V, respectively. SS ramps up linearly after EN is high. The
inductor current IL and output voltage VOUT rises from zero to
where /lp, Cox, W, L and I stands for effective channel mobility,

the normal operation in about Sms. No inrush current and

gate oxide capacitance per unit area, channel width and length

voltage overshoot is found. Fig. 4(b) shows the soft-recovery

of a MOSFET transistor and the bias current, respectively.

operation with short circuit fault. It can be seen that SS is

clamped to about 100mV when output is shorted to GND. The

B.

circuit

Error Amplifier with Soft-Start

Fig. 3 shows the schematic of error amplifier with soft-start.

The minimum selector function is chosen to be implemented as

part of the pMOS differential input stage [S]. A three-limb

recovers

softly

once

the

fault

is

removed.

The

measurement result shows that the proposed circuit work and

agree well with the theoretical analysis. The soft-start and soft
recovery circuit has no effect on normal operation.

differential pair is employed skillfully. The amplifier selects

V.

the positive input between SS and VRI automatically, which

CONCLUSION

An optimized soft-start circuit with soft-recovery function

does not increase quiescent current consumption.

is presented in this paper. The soft-start strategy is based on a

IV.

linearly

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

A monolithic DC-DC buck converter using the proposed

soft-start and soft-recovery circuit has been implemented with
a

O.S/lm

IP3M

CMOS

process.

The

die

size

is

ramped-up

reference

and

the

soft-recovery

is

implemented with a clamp circuit. The structure is compact and

simple to implement. The circuit would be useful in various
DC-DC converters.

I600/lmx2400/lm. The chip supports up to SA load current.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The synchronous switch increases efficiency and eliminates the

This work was supported in part by the National Natural

Science Foundation of China under Grant 61106026 and the
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of
ss

China under Grant KSOSII02002S.

FB
REFERENCES

Fig. 2.

Fig. 3.

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[2]

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[3]

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[4]

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[5]

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2010.

Schematic of the proposed clamp circuit with soft-recovery.

Schematic of the error amplifier with minimum selector