Current trends towards miniaturization of electronic circuits had led to the advent of System onChip containing different types of circuits indented to perform different functions. These sub-systemsrequire different supply voltages that are delivered from the SoC supply voltage using several DC/DCconverters. Currently, most of the electronic circuits of portable applications use conventional SMPS(switch mode power supply) DC/DC converters containing an inductor element to stock temporally theelectrical energy.In this case the converter is outside the chip since the integration of the inductor is very difficultand that resistive losses increase when the coil diameter decreases. The alternative to use switchedcapacitor converters, which can be easily integrated on silicon, presents some limitations because ofthe dependence of the required number of capacitors on the conversion ratio, and because ofswitching losses due to the charge and the discharge of the capacitors inducing a decrease of theconversion efficiency. For that reason, it is interesting to develop a new alternative that allows thefabrication of a compact and efficient DC/DC converter in order to get a completely integrated system.This thesis focuses on a novel solution based on electrostatic MEMS in order to make anintegrated DC/DC converter with high efficiency. A mechanically variable capacitor is used instead ofthe inductor element to store the transient electrical energy. The variable capacitor is fabricated byMEMS micromachining process techniques compatible with CMOS process integration.In this work, we explain the principle and the operation of a step down and a step-up converterusing our novel approach through an energetic analysis, we design a MEMS device optimized withrespect to the voltage conversion application, and we present our converter control method using azero voltage switching technique. An efficiency of almost 88% was obtained by simulation of a 10V-20V converter, when the power management circuitry was considered with discrete elements; thisefficiency is promising and could be improved when the whole system will be integrated on silicon.:
