Controllers cascade to cover up to 30 supplies

Summit Microelectronics reckons it has raised the bar again in intelligent power management devices with the introduction of the SMM766 and SMM764 linkable active POL controllers.

Summit Microelectronics reckons it has raised the bar again in intelligent power management devices with the introduction of the SMM766 and SMM764 linkable active POL (point of load DC/DC power supply) controllers.

They implement sequencing, margining, and true differential tracking with a unique linking feature that allows up to 30 channels of operation.

The SMM766 is a six-channel device, and the SMM764 is a four-channel device.

Linking is simply achieved with a single pin that ties all of the devices together for totally co-ordinated operation.

Ideal applications for the devices include storage, server, networking and communications equipment where as much as 99.999% up-time is essential.

These products use Summit's award-winning ADOC technique (Analog Zone 2003 Power Management Product of the Year).

This is a new engineering concept called active DC output control that intelligently maintains the output voltage of DC/DC convertors on the user's board, dramatically improving voltage accuracy in system use - typically to +/-0.1% of voltage output.

The SMM766 and SMM764 are highly useful in initial turn-on of the board during production to perform "margining".

This is the temporary adjusting of each of the controlled POL supply voltages up to +/-10% in any combination across up to 30 channels of operation - so that sensitivity of the system to power supply changes can be determined.

Margining can be performed either just on prototype boards before production launch, or can be done board-by-board in production to test for manufacturing variations.

Summit's precision makes margining highly useful in improving system reliability - as compared to competitor's devices with as much as +/-10% inaccuracy where such inaccuracy negates the usefulness of margining.

Finally, these devices can be configured to sequence up to 30 voltage supplies in any order during both power-up and power-down transitions.

This sequencing can be set by the user to cascade each supply as the prior supply completes its transition, therefore relieving the user of the need to calculate the slew rate of each supply voltage depending on its loading, and specifying a safe delay time before the next supply can be actuated.

This guarantees that unwanted crossovers will not occur.

The SMM766 and SMM764 can be accessed by the popular I2C bus to exercise complete control of the board's power characteristics.

This can be done during production, or each time that the board is booted up, or during normal operation "on the fly" during normal operation.

To speed user product development using the SMM766 and SMM764 and Summit's other programmable products, Summit offers customers the SMX3200 programming system.

This is a complete development tool that lets designers easily manipulate the characteristics of their systems.

The SMX3200 design kit includes menu-driven Microsoft Windows graphical user interface (GUI) software to automate programming tasks and also includes all necessary hardware to interface to the parallel port of a laptop or PC.

Once a user completes design and prototyping, the SMX3200 automatically generates a hex data file that can be transmitted to Summit for review and approval.

Summit then assigns a unique customer identification code to the hex file and programs the customer's production devices prior to final electrical test operations.

This ensures that the device will operate properly in the end application.

The design kit software can be downloaded today from Summit's website.

Evaluation cards containing the SMM766 or SMM764 controller, DC/DC convertors, all required associated circuitry, and a port for "plug and play" programming via the SMX33200 dongle interface are available.

A three-digit digital voltmeter is required to see the voltage accuracy enhancement provided by these devices - typically as low as +/-0.1% error (guaranteed to +/- 0.2%), compared with the +/-2% or even +/-4% variation of typical convertor bricks when ADOC control is removed.

Available in volume quantities today, the SMM766 and SMM764 come in 48-pin TQFP surface-mount packages.

Commercial temperature range pricing is $9.75 and $7.31, respectively, in 1000-unit quantities.

Industrial temperature range pricing is $12.95 and $9.60, respectively, for the two products.

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