Ericsson Saves Board Space with Surface-Mount Digital Bus Converter
Ericsson Power Modules has introduced a new 468W surface-mounted version of its second-generation of digital Advanced Bus Converter (ABC) products, called the BMR456-SI. This high-efficiency, digitally controlled dc-dc converter is compliant to full surface-mount manufacturing processes and includes high-precision tooled pins to guarantee high co-planarity and robustness. Advanced firmware integrated in the BMR456-SI contributes towards significant reduction in energy consumption. These devices provide a tightly regulated output voltage (±2%) over the full operational range of 36V to 75V
Ericsson’s advanced mechanical surface-mount technology is based on highly accurately tooled pins that are inserted and aligned during the original assembly process. The same hardware is used for through-hole and surface-mount versions of the BMR456, which increases the flexibility and speed of manufacturing and contributes to smaller lead times.
In addition to input and output power connections, additional I/O (+/– output remote sense, address pin, PMBus clock and data, power good and user configurable I/O, PMBus ground, PMBus alert signal and PMBus remote control or current sharing) is made available through a micro-interface. This connector has been designed to comply with Ericsson’s advanced high-precision surface-mount technology and to guarantee full alignment and co-planarity during different soldering processes.
The BMR456-SI is based upon the FRIDA II platform. The FRIDA II generation of fully regulated digital dc-dc converters is based on a 32-bit ARM microcontroller that embeds the family’s most advanced firmware to date, called the ‘Ericsson DC/DC Energy Optimizer’. This combines advanced Ericsson Intellectual Property (IP) together with a series of industry-first functionalities to continually optimize switching parameters and reduce energy consumption to an absolute minimum. The firmware has been developed to guarantee the highest possible performance at any point of operation from low load to high load, and to handle line transients, such as those occurring in ATCA (Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture) applications when, for example, switching from Feed A to Feed B.
Designed to power telecom and datacom applications, the BRM456-SI is available in two input voltages ranges: 36V to 75V (telecom), delivering output power of 420W; and 40V to 60V (datacom), delivering output power up to 468W. Output voltage can be adjusted across a range from 4.0V to 13.2V via PMBus commands, making the module suitable for Dynamic Bus Voltage operation resulting in the reduction of energy consumption when communication data traffic is low.
In addition, taking full advantage of a highly optimized layout and firmware-optimized parameter switching to reduce power losses, the BMR456-SI delivers a typical efficiency of 96.5% and exhibits flat curve behavior from 14% to 100% load, positioning the product as the most efficient Advanced Bus Converter in its category.
The BMR456-SI meets the insulation requirements of EN60950, sustains an I/O isolation voltage of 2250 Vdc, and also offers an extensive set of capabilities and features such as: remote sensing; PMBus-configurable protection (over-temperature, over-current and over-voltage); configurable start/stop; precision delay ramp-up; voltage margining; configurable fault response; power good; and extensive power management programmability.
