March 11, 2013

Power Modules for Charger Applications

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Semiconductors figure prominently in modern-day battery charging applications. This is why Vincotech has developed a wide range of power modules specifically for this purpose. H-bridges, half-bridges, as well as buck and boost modules, in combination with rectifier modules, convert a fixed voltage and frequency into a lower DC voltage suitable for batteries. They boost overall efficiency and improve the size-to-cost ratio. Another benefit over conventional designs is the controllability. What's more, custom topologies can easily implemented in Vincotech's power modules. These power modules make the most of the PCB and are very well suited for applications designed to leave a small footprint.

Download White Paper: Power Modules for Charger Applications

February 27, 2013

The Adaptive Cell Converter Topology Enables Constant Efficiency Over Universal Input AC Line in Front-End, High-Density Power Factor Correction Applications

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The Adaptive Cell™ topology is a unique, proprietary architecture at the heart of Vicor's high performance PFM™ AC-DC products. Power Factor Corrected AC rectification has been addressed in a variety of ways over the past three decades. This paper will explain how the Vicor PFM converter represents a breakthrough in AC front-end power factor correction by analyzing the converter structure at three different levels of details: in a classic bottom-up approach, three different "magnification factors" will be applied to the same structure.

Download White Paper: The Adaptive Cell Converter Topology Enables Constant Efficiency Over Universal Input AC Line in Front-End, High-Density Power Factor Correction Applications (Registration Required)

February 27, 2013

From 48 V direct to Intel VR12.0: Saving "Big Data" $500,000 per datacenter, per year

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The exponential rise in "Big Data" generation, processing and storage, from sources such as intensive industrial simulations, medical research and social media sites highlights the growing demand for datacenter and cloud computing power worldwide. The subsequent task is to maximize energy efficiency, thus saving money and natural energy resources, minimizing pollution and meeting the US Department of Energy's "Exascale" challenge; perform an ExaFLOP (1 x 10^18 floating point operations per second) of compute workload using only 20 MW of power. This paper describes how Vicor's Factorized Power Architecture® (FPA®) enables the world's first Intel® VR12.0 compliant solution to operate directly from 48 V distribution systems, saving $500,000 per datacenter in annual running costs.

Download White Paper: From 48 V direct to Intel VR12.0: Saving "Big Data" $500,000 per datacenter, per year (Registration Required)

February 21, 2013

Benefits of NPC Inverter Topologies in Power Modules

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Solar inverters, UPS (uninterruptible power supplies), motor drives energy consumption has become a major issue in these and many other power electronics applications where fast switching and high frequencies figure prominently. The demand for efficiency, particularly in solar inverters, is certainly on the rise. This paper presents alternatives for 3~ inverters with 700V DC link voltage. Although it does not discuss the details of IGBT modules, it does look at how NPC (neutral point clamped)/ mixed voltage NPC topologies, half-bridges, and low inductance factor into the efficiency equation.

Download White Paper: Benefits of NPC Inverter Topologies in Power Modules

January 29, 2013

The PI33XX: Zero-Voltage Switching Applied to Buck Regulation

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The Picor PI33XX Cool-Power® ZVS Buck Regulator Series delivers maximum power density and high efficiency point of load DC-DC regulation. This unique, high density, buck regulator integrates a high performance Zero-Voltage switching (ZVS) topology along with power and support components all within a surface mount package. This paper provides a brief description of the performance and value of the ZVS topology within the PI33XX series.

Download White Paper: The PI33XX: Zero-Voltage Switching Applied to Buck Regulation (Registration Required)

January 21, 2013

High Performance ZVS Buck Regulator Removes Barriers To Increased Power Throughput In Wide Input Range Point-Of-Load Applications

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The need for higher power density in today's electronic systems combined with higher overall efficiency has driven many changes in the Non-isolated Point-of-Load Regulator (niPOL). In an effort to improve overall system efficiency, designers are opting to avoid multiple conversion stages to get to the regulated point-of-load voltage they need. This means that the niPOL is operated at higher input voltages with higher conversion ratios than ever before. Despite this fact, the niPOL is expected to maintain the highest efficiency and still continue to shrink the total size of the power solution. There is also the added expectation that with all other performance increases that power demand from the niPOL also further increases.

Download White Paper: High Performance ZVS Buck Regulator Removes Barriers To Increased Power Throughput In Wide Input Range Point-Of-Load Applications (Registration Required)

September 24, 2012

Complex Power Relationships Without all the Wires

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In traditional power systems, requirements for system relationships such as sync clocking, sequencing, and high-current needs are codified within the design of the board, meaning any changes to the system requirements means changes to the board design. With Ericsson 3E Point Of Load though, the wires previously required for complex power relationships can be replaced with shared digital buses and configuration software instead.

For example, when you have multiple rails or phases in a power system, you first need them to stay in sync. Typically this requires an external clock to drive the power modules, but a digital power system offers the option to let a digital power device output its own external clock to other phases and rails in the system. Once all the devices are using the same sync clock, then next concern for the power system is to spread the clock phase offsets across the devices to reduce peak power draw and EMI noise. With digital power, this is done just by defining the number of devices on the sync clock and assigning positions to each device. This means the system designer doesn’t have to think about calculating individual phase offset angles. Sequencing and Paralleling with Load Sharing are similarly simplified when implemented in a digital power environment. In fact, the devices coordinate parallel operation across the same one-wire bus that’s used for sequencing.

This white paper contains a few pages from Ericsson’s comprehensive 460-page Digital Power Compendium. You can download the Free Digital Power Compendium here.

Download White Paper: Complex Power Relationships Without all the Wires

September 5, 2012

Power Supplies Go Digital

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Digital power techniques have been proposed for some years now, but have not been able to successfully compete with analog solutions. Thanks to an increase in IC density, hard work on the part of semiconductor suppliers and a mature and reliable CMOS technology, digital processing for power conversion applications is now very attractive. The use of digital techniques results in capabilities and performance levels at both the power supply and system levels that are not possible with analog techniques.

While much of the publicity and controversy about digital power techniques is focused on power system management issues, the most important issue, and the ultimate driver for its acceptance, will be the benefits that it brings to the power supply itself. These benefits are real, measurable and available with today’s technology: Improved efficiency, Improved reliability due to higher integration of digital control circuitry, Reduced system cost because of fewer decoupling capacitors due to enhanced load transient response of adaptive digital control, Increased power supply power density due to smaller digital control circuitry, Tighter output voltage tolerances due to enhanced initial set point trimming Lower overall cost of ownership due to the above improvements. Due to the cost parity between digital and analog control implementations using today’s technology, these benefits are “free” to the end user and represent real customer value.

This white paper contains a few pages from Ericsson’s comprehensive 460-page Digital Power Compendium. You can download the Free Digital Power Compendium here.

Download White Paper: Power Supplies Go Digital

August 27, 2012

Digital Control Techniques Enabling Power Density Improvements and Power Management Capabilities

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Digital techniques can be applied at several points within a power system, both internal to power supplies and at the system level for purposes of implementing management and monitoring functions. This paper elaborates on the former situation. It compares the effects at the system level of implementation of control functions internal to a Board Mounted Power Supply (BMPS) with digital techniques vs. the more traditional analog approaches. With either of the approaches considered in this comparison, the end user of the BMPS may treat the device in a traditional way without any need for digital techniques at the system level.

The analysis is based on a case study of a product from an actual production batch. It is shown that replacing some of the analog content with digital circuitry can provide performance benefits to the end user without incurring any penalties in the form of additional cost or design complexity. Power density, in particular, is significantly improved. In addition, work is presented showing how a simple cost effective communication interface can be added to the basic design so that the additional functionality of digital power management can be made available.

This white paper contains a few pages from Ericsson’s comprehensive 460-page Digital Power Compendium. You can download the Free Digital Power Compendium here.

Download White Paper: Digital Control Techniques Enabling Power Density Improvements and Power Management Capabilities

August 1, 2012

Performance Improvements for OEM System Designers

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Digital control techniques can be applied at several points within a power system, both internal to power converters and at the system level for purposes of implementing control and monitoring functions. This paper elaborates on the former situation. It compares the effects at the system level of implementation of control functions internal to a dc-dc regulator with digital techniques vs. the more traditional analog approaches. With either of the approaches considered in this comparison, the end user of the regulator may treat the device in a traditional way without any need for digital techniques at the system level.

The comparison is done by means of a case study using an actual production product with only the minimal required changes to the power train so that the effects of the control system implementation are highlighted. Some of the areas of interest in the comparison are electrical performance including efficiency, parts count, power density, cost and reliability. The comparison is done from an end-user’s perspective rather than focusing on benefits to the regulator designer.

This white paper contains a few pages from Ericsson’s comprehensive 460-page Digital Power Compendium. You can download the Free Digital Power Compendium here.

Download White Paper: Performance Improvements for OEM System Designers

July 16, 2012

Digital Power Techniques Set New Standards For Board-Mounted Power Modules' Flexibility

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As many designers have discovered, the combination of digital power control and digital power management exceeds routine evolutionary expectations to represent a real, cost-effective step change in overall capability. Here, digital power control refers to implementing the inner control loop of a power converter with digital circuitry rather than using familiar analogue schemes. For a simple buck converter, this means substituting an analogue-to-digital converter for the traditional error-signal feedback amplifier, and deriving correction for the pulse-width modulator that drives the power switches using digital signal processing techniques in place of a voltage reference, ramp generator, and comparator.

By contrast, digital power management denotes supervisory and control circuitry that communicates via a digital I/O scheme, which today almost invariably exploits the PMBus™ interface that has become the power-industry standard. A converter that combines both of these digital power concepts can actively manage its conversion process to optimize efficiency for changing line and load conditions while including all of the power management system within the same package

This white paper contains a few pages from Ericsson’s comprehensive 460-page Digital Power Compendium. You can download the Free Digital Power Compendium here.

Download White Paper: Digital Power Techniques Set New Standards For Board-Mounted Power Modules' Flexibility

July 2, 2012

Qualification and Verification Considerations for Digital Power Modules, Part 2

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Digitally-controlled power supplies introduce elements that can be unfamiliar to many power-system designers, threatening to complicate the qualification and verification processes that assure end-product quality. Yet analysis shows that the change from analog to digital inner-loop control is a well-proven evolution that provides rock-solid foundations for today’s Quality Assurance (QA) processes.

Like their programmable-logic forbears, the full impact of highly-configurable digital power supplies extends beyond immediately obvious boundaries. With onboard firmware making it possible for users to program multiple parameters that determine the converter’s operational behavior within the power industry’s standard PMBus™ architecture, the sea-change in flexibility that digital power delivers breaks the regular QA model for analog power supplies.

This white paper contains a few pages from Ericsson’s comprehensive 460-page Digital Power Compendium. You can download the Free Digital Power Compendium here.

Download White Paper: Qualification and Verification Considerations for Digital Power Modules, Part 2

June 15, 2012

Implications of Digital Control and Management for a High Performance Isolated DC/DC Converter

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This paper is a case study that compares digital control vs. analog control for usage in an isolated DC/DC converter. The analog control version is an existing high performance DC/DC converter that exemplifies the current state-of-the-art in terms of size, efficiency and reliability for telecom systems. This study shows that the digital and analog designs are roughly similar in terms of efficiency, size, output ripple, component count and predicted failure rate.

The main objective was to obtain performance that was equal to or better than that of the analog reference design. Test data was taken to make performance comparisons between the two versions. The digital version is superior in terms of output power, output regulation and dynamic load response. New features and capabilities that were possible with the digital design include output voltage feedback for enhanced regulation capability, adjustable output voltage, programmable output droop, and an optional interface for usage with digital power management at the system level.

This white paper contains a few pages from Ericsson’s comprehensive 460-page Digital Power Compendium. You can download the Free Digital Power Compendium here.

Download White Paper: Implications of Digital Control and Management for a High Performance Isolated DC/DC Converter

June 1, 2012

Digital Power Delivers Real-World Benefits

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After decades of being an interesting laboratory experiment, digital power has recently become commercially viable thanks to commodity mixed-signal silicon processes. A growing number of semiconductor vendors offer solutions that are in some instances now in their third generation, yet in such a conservative market sector some concerns still remain regarding the advantages that digital power conversion delivers. For instance some people consider the digital approach to be excessively costly, yet any real-world comparison between analog and digital power control methods quickly dispels this notion.

Analog power converters for professional applications are now so highly developed that there is little chance of step improvements in their performance or cost-effectiveness. By contrast, digital inner-loop control offers an array of benefits that come at negligible additional cost. This paper explores a few examples of real-world situations where Ericsson’s 3E* series of digital power converters speed time-to-market in diverse application scenarios.

This white paper contains a few pages from Ericsson’s comprehensive 460-page Digital Power Compendium. You can download the Free Digital Power Compendium here.

Download White Paper: Digital Power Delivers Real-World Benefits

May 16, 2012

Intelligent Energy Management for Improved Efficiency

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This white paper addresses two converging trends of digital control and management of power conversion systems and the recognition of the importance of energy conservation. It shows that using digital techniques can increase the efficiency of power supplies and of the systems that use them. Efficiency, in turn, is the primary driver for energy conservation so that optimization of efficiency leads to the concept of Energy Management rather than just power management. The relationship between increased power supply efficiency and quantifiable measures of energy conservation is also explored.

In addition to simulating the power delivery hardware, the evaluation system discussed includes a software interface to allow for adjustment of system and power supply parameters in a manner similar to that used by a system developer. It is demonstrated that power supplies utilizing control ICs from different manufacturers can be successfully integrated into one system and communicate effectively over the system management bus.

This white paper contains a few pages from Ericsson’s comprehensive 460-page Digital Power Compendium. You can download the Free Digital Power Compendium here.

Download White Paper: Intelligent Energy Management for Improved Efficiency

May 2, 2012

Qualification and Verification Considerations for Digital Power Supplies, Part 1

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Hardware and system impacts of digital power are being addressed in the many conference papers and trade journal articles that have recently been appearing. But this highly configurable new approach to power supplies has other impacts both to suppliers of power hardware and to their OEM customers. One of these impacts is the Quality Assurance process, which faces new challenges with the introduction of digital power supplies.

With digital power, the converters and regulators are highly configurable via software resulting in an almost infinite number of possible performance attributes. Some of the Quality Assurance issues that arise from this change include management of software levels, verification of memory operation internal to power supplies, sourcing of critical digital control components, more complex verification testing, lifetime and reliability implications, software upgrade procedures, and failure analysis.

This white paper contains a few pages from Ericsson’s comprehensive 460-page Digital Power Compendium. You can download the Free Digital Power Compendium here.

Download White Paper: Qualification and Verification Considerations for Digital Power Supplies, Part 1

April 24, 2012

Ease of Design Comparison for a PSiP/MicroModule/PwrSoC Design Flow Process

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This Darnell Group white paper quantifies the relative ease of design for a PSiP/MicroModule/PwrSoC design flow used in a 5A dc-dc regulator for an FPGA or similar load vs. a “typical” dc-dc regulator “down” solution. In order to do this, the Darnell Group qualified and validated the design steps for a general PSiP/MicroModule/PwrSoC design configuration by conducting a series of surveys comparing a typical DC-DC Regulator design flow with a comparable PSiP/MicroModule/PwrSoC design flow. Respondents included representatives from a variety of leading server, storage, data communications, personal computer and telecommunications industries in the US, China and Europe. A few of the key findings include:

• The duration of the design process for the PSiP/MicroModule/PwrSoC design flow takes 45.0% less man hours to complete than a dc-dc regulator “down solution.”
• The dc-dc regulator design flow is a much more complex process and with design iterations included, takes over 2.8 times as many steps.
• Even with the use of today’s web-based tools, it still takes an average of 464 man-hours to complete a dc-dc regulator design flow vs. only 254 man-hours to complete a PSiP/MicroModule/PwrSoC design.

Download White Paper: Ease of Design Comparison for a PSiP/MicroModule/PwrSoC Design Flow Process

April 17, 2012

Scalable Footprints Extend Digital Power Converters' Flexibility

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The advent of digitally-controlled power converter modules presents designers with a raft of new opportunities to explore in their continual quest for ever-greater system efficiency, flexibility, reliability, and overall cost-effectiveness. Systems frequently evolve over several iterations that build upon a common platform, with inevitable changes in power needs that designers may be able to address by specifying power modules from a family that shares a scalable footprint. With some thought, this footprint can satisfy not only a range of power levels, but also serve a variety of applications that span analog-converter replacement to implementing sophisticated power-management schemes that can further reduce a system’s power consumption.

This white paper contains a few pages from Ericsson’s comprehensive 460-page Digital Power Compendium. You can download the Free Digital Power Compendium here.

Download White Paper: Scalable Footprints Extend Digital Power Converters' Flexibility

March 30, 2012

Get Ahead With 3E Digital DC/DC Converters and POL Regulators

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Ericsson Power Modules has recently introduced a comprehensive set of products that establish an innovative approach to the goals of end-user value, flexibility, and system performance. These new products contain several unique concepts spanning multiple disciplines in circuit and system design, all focused on optimizing performance, flexibility, and value for the end-user. Ericsson Power Modules refers to the high-level end-user benefits of this approach as “3E”, the 3 Es being:

• Enhanced Performance
• Energy Management
• End-user Value

This white paper contains a few pages from Ericsson’s comprehensive 460-page Digital Power Compendium. You can download the Free Digital Power Compendium here.

Download White Paper: Get Ahead With 3E Digital DC/DC Converters and POL Regulators