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Digital Power Helps Get Products To Market More Quickly PDF
Digital Power Helps Get Products To Market More Quickly PDF
Power engineers have bigger and bigger challenges. Designs are more complex as the
performance and capabilities of integrated circuits continues to increase. As part of today’s
design constraints, engineers must juggle many different parameters at once. They must
manage a multitude of timing and sequencing issues while simultaneously worrying about
thermal ramifications and individual component variances. Additionally, many power
management functions that were historically optional are now required features in current
generation devices. Modern devices also have lower voltage requirements in order to meet
the demands for faster and more efficient data processing. These devices operate at higher
frequency and draw increasingly higher currents adding additional layers of concern in
managing a design.
Yet another challenge facing today’s engineer relates to component variations. These
variations may occur on an individual part basis through different tolerances or through the
use of multiple vendors. They may also occur through changes in temperature as well as
aging of the components. The output filter capacitance can therefore vary quite
dramatically and engineers have traditionally had to design for worst case solutions through
fixed compensation. Such design practices are inherently un-optimal and can compromise
system reliability and efficiency. It is also a time consuming process to tune the
compensation to account for changes that occur during the design. Every time a component
changes during the design process, the power engineer must re-tune the control loop.
As the markets have evolved, time to market has become increasingly important as well.
The need to get products designed quickly has put further pressure on the design engineer.
This pressure is aggravated when many system power needs are not considered until late in
the design cycle. An ASIC power designer, for example, may develop the power solution
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before getting the silicon back. In most case they will have to modify the power supply
because the final silicon may be different than initially simulated. This could have a 2 to 4
month affect on the schedule. Introduction timing of a new product has been shown to
correlate directly to long term market share and profitability. Such delays, therefore, can
have a significant impact on the business viability of the end product in potentially missed
market windows.
Digital solutions also have the capability of monitoring various system parameters to
better optimize total system efficiency on a real time basis. Monitoring and reporting of
input voltage, output voltage, output current, and temperature provide data that can be
utilized to make possible real-time adjustments at the system level. These optimizations
were previously not feasible with analog alternatives.
Standard Infrastructure
Wide spread market acceptance is driven by many factors. In order to move beyond just
early adopters, the digital solution must not only solve problems, they must be easy to use
in concept and practice. One aspect of this utility comes in the ability to interact with
multiple different devices. Components need to easily communicate amongst one another.
Electrical and software compatibility ensure a more seamless integration of a total solution.
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provides true interoperability which will reduce design complexity and shorten time to
market for power system designers.
Digital solutions can help solve the issues facing today’s design engineer. Digital power
management addresses system level efficiency and does so while bringing products to
market more quickly. The technology also provides enhanced communication and the
ability to monitor, control, and configure minimizing system power and energy consumption.
As companies look for new ways of gaining a competitive edge, digital power will be an
avenue that many will increasingly choose to consider.
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