Intelligent control raises power efficiency

Third-generation digital controllers and plug-in modules add intelligence to power system management.

Texas Instruments has introduced its third-generation Fusion Digital Power controllers and new plug-in modules that more intelligently manage today's power systems.

The highly configurable and feature-rich products digitally manage up to four independent digital-control loops and up to eight phases, while improving energy efficiency up to 30% during light load conditions.

Leading telecomms and server equipment suppliers, such as Sun Microsystems, continue to look for new ways to manage multiple power phases and respond quickly to changes in the system.

TI's family of UCD9240 integrated power system controllers provide the highest density and performance features to quickly adapt to what a system needs.

"Tomorrow's servers will require better power management capabilities that increase density and improve the system power efficiency over the range of operating conditions, while maintaining overall system reliability", said Ansu Chakrabarti, Senior Manager of System Technology from Sun Microsystems.

"New developments in digital power technology, such as the UCD9240 from Texas Instruments, will allow Sun to offer servers with significantly improved levels of power system optimisation".

TI's four-output, multi-phase UCD9240 power system controllers implement digital pulsewidth modulators (PWM) with 250ps resolution, and are fully configurable via a graphical user interface (GUI) for monitoring, control and management for DC/DC point-of-load power conversion.

GUI configuration allows a designer to intelligently manage the power supply's voltage and current thresholds and response, soft start, margining, sequencing, tracking, phase management, loop response, fan control and many other features.

The UCD9240 incorporates the Fusion Digital Power peripheral, which performs full-digital loop control while supporting switching frequencies of up to 2MHz.

The controller supports up to 100 PMBus interface commands for control, configuration and management of the power supply, while requiring a minimal supply current as low as 40mA during operation.

The UCD9240 controller incorporates a unique phase management feature that enables the power supply to operate at high efficiency over the range of the load.

Phase management allows the user to turn on or off phases of the power supply so that only the phases required to power the load are enabled.

In addition, the UCD9240 allows the user to optimise the loop response for the operating condition and meet acceptable transient response over the load range.

In addition to the new controller family, TI introduced two new PowerTrain plug-in modules that further simplify the DC/DC convertor design by providing a high-degree of configurability when used with the UCD9K family of controllers.

The PTD08A010W and PTD08A020W 10 and 20A modules integrate the inductor, FETs and TI's UCD7230 driver with current sense capability plus integrated short circuit protection to provide stable and reliable operation of the power supply while protecting the system.

TI's configurable design tool helps designers configure and set specific criteria to monitor and control the power system - with no programming required.

The free design tool works with all UCD9K Fusion Digital Power controllers, and provides real-time monitoring, modelling and simulation features to manage the power system digitally.

TI provides a broad portfolio of digital power integrated circuits that enable digitally controlled power systems with high system intelligence and performance in an easy-to-use, intuitive development environment.

From its Fusion Digital Power series of UCD9K and UCD7K controllers and power supply drivers, to the high-performance, fully programmable, DSP-based TMS320F28x controllers, TI's digital power solutions are optimised for applications ranging from point-of-load to high-power AC/DC conversion.

Samples of TI's UCD9240 power system controllers are available in a 64-pin QFN package.

Suggested resale pricing for the UCD9240 is US $5.95 in quantities of 1000 units.

The PTD08A010W and PTD08A020W 10 and 20A PowerTrain modules are sampling today with a suggested resale price of US $8.50 and $12.90 in quantities of 1000 units.

Volume production for all devices is expected in the third quarter of 2007.

Back to top