A12 Switch Zero-Inductor Voltage Converter Topology For Next Generation Datacenters

Advancements in datacenter power architecture has led to 48V to 12V intermediate bus converters becoming a resurgent area of research interested. The 48 volt server architecture, proposed by companies such as Google, can offer significant benefits. This higher voltage reduces the distribution losses by 4x as compared with a 12V distribution, as well ad reducing the power conversion losses at the building level. However, increasing this server rack voltage to 48 volts presents a challenge when converting down to point of load voltages using conventional topologies. The Zero Inductor-Voltage converter that can achieve up to 2.5kW/in3 power density for 70A/12V output. The full load efficiency was measured to be 97.2% with a peak efficiency of 99.1%. This represents the highest efficiency and power density yet demonstrated. The design of the converter is also relatively straightforward as there is no need for active current sharing control, and the converter does not utilize resonant components.