Yicheng is exploring extreme-performance hybrid switched-capacitor (SC) converters that can leverage both the greatly superior energy density of capacitors (100-1000x compared to inductors and transformers) and the fast dynamic response and current ripple reduction enabled by coupled inductors. With high power densities, these converters can be placed directly underneath the microprocessors for vertical power delivery (VPD) to significantly reduce the power distribution network (PDN) losses and open up the topside area on the motherboard for high-speed communication, compared to today's lateral power delivery (LPD) architecture.
Yicheng Zhu received his B.Eng. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2017 and 2020, respectively. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include the analysis, design, and control of high-performance hybrid switched-capacitor power converters for data center power delivery. He was the 2020 recipient of the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Outstanding Student Scholarship, the Tsinghua Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award, and the Berkeley Fellowship.