Analysis and design of a high frequency driver for cascode power stages suitable for automotive DCDC converters

This thesis has been carried out in the context of an internship in Infineon Technologies Padova. The research activity focuses in the analysis and development of the power stage of a previously designed DCDC buck converter thought for high frequency operation (100 MHz) in the post regulation domain for automotive applications. In particular, the analysis work is aimed to get a better understanding of the switching operation of an innovative cascode switch topology, and to point out the main criticalities in the power stage. Then, particular emphasis has been put on improving the system in the direction of a better reliability, a minor area footprint and a more accurate driving of the main switches by the development of an internal voltage regulator.