A KY converter has the characteristics of non-pulsating output current, low-output voltage ripple and no right-half plane zero in continuous conduction mode which can overcome the drawbacks of the conventional boost and buck-boost converters. However, when the KY converter is implemented into an integrated circuit, its discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) operation cannot be avoided due to a small-inductor value. The boundary for the DCM operation region, DCM dc voltage and small-signal transfer functions are proposed, which fill the gap of the DCM operation theory for the KY converter. Simulation results, using MATLAB and Cadence, are provided to verify the deduced DCM operation theory of the KY converter. The DCM closed-loop controller design can be achievable in future. Introduction: Voltage boosting dc-dc converters are required in many computer, communication and consumer electronics products, such as MPEG-3 (MP3) players, personal digital assistants etc. For such applications, output voltage ripple and noise should be taken into consideration. As for conventional voltage-boosting converters, such as boost, buckboost converters, their output currents are pulsating, thereby causing the output voltage ripple to be large [1]. Moreover, they have a right-half plane zero (RHPZ) in the continuous conduction mode (CCM), thereby lowering system stability and degrading the load transient response [2]. To overcome such drawbacks, a boost converter called a KY converter was proposed by Hwu and Yau [1] for power electronics applications. This converter comprises a switched-capacitor charge pump converter and a buck converter, and combines the advantages of both converters and exhibits the characteristics of non-pulsating output current, low-output voltage ripple and no RHPZ in CCM [1, 3]. Moreover, it always operates in CCM as claimed in [1, 3]. However, when the KY converter is implemented into a power management integrated circuit (IC), due to a small inductance, its discontinuous-conduction mode (DCM) operation cannot be avoided for longer battery life. This Letter presents a DCM operation analysis of the KY converter.