Encapsulated simple digital power modules offer power density and efficiency
Renesas Electronics Corporation has launched a family of encapsulated digital DC/DC PMBus power modules.
The five RAA210xxx simple digital power modules offer advanced digital telemetry and performance, and are as easy to use as Renesas’ analogue power modules, says the company
The modules are complete step-down regulated power supplies that deliver 25A, 33A, dual 25A, 50A, and 70A of output current, while operating from industry-standard 12V or 5V input power rails.
The RAA210xxx family provides point-of-load conversion for advanced FPGAs, DSPs, ASICs and memory used in servers, storage, optical networking and telecom equipment.
Each device integrates a PWM controller, MOSFETs, inductor and passives inside a thermally optimised, high-density array (HDA) encapsulated module. All that is needed to complete the power supply are input and output bulk capacitors.
The RAA210xxx series is pin-to-pin compatible with Renesas’ full-featured digital ISL827xM series. The digital power modules offer run-time digital programmability to support configuration changes with a subset of PMBus commands, and full telemetry and system monitoring.
If more advanced digital control is later required, upgrading to the pin-compatible ISL827xM modules will enable current sharing with multiple modules connected in parallel, access to all PMBus commands using the PowerNavigator tool and non-volatile memory for configuration storage.
“Our simple digital power modules accelerate time to market for design teams that want an easier-to-use, lower-cost digital power solution,” said Philip Chesley, vice-president of industrial analogue and power business division, Renesas Electronics Corporation.
The proprietary HDA package offers electrical and thermal performance at full load through a single-layer conductive package substrate that efficiently transfers heat from the module to the system board, and dissipates it without requiring airflow or heatsinks.
Space-constrained boards take full advantage of the HDA’s high-power density, which is not achievable with discrete components.
The modules leverage Renesas’ ChargeMode control architecture that delivers up to 96 per cent peak efficiency and better than 90 percent efficiency under most conditions, says the company.
They also provide single-clock-cycle fast transient response to output current load steps, which reduces capacitance and helps save on board space.
