Coupled Inductors From Pulse Support Volterra Solutions
Pulse, a Technitrol Company, announced the introduction of the industry's first family of coupled inductors for non-isolated step-down dc-dc voltage regulators. Pulse's multi-phase coupled inductors are developed and manufactured under a license agreement with Volterra to support Volterra's VT1165M and VT1115M chipsets that implement its patented coupled inductor topology. This innovative inductor solution provides a highly efficient voltage regulation system with low system cost.
Pulse's PA131xNL is a family of off-the-shelf, surface-mount, RoHS-compliant inductors, with 2, 3, 4, or 5 phases magnetically coupled together in a single part. Each phase has an equivalent transient inductance (Lk) of 50 nanoHenries (nH) and a magnetizing inductance (Lm) greater than 250nH. Each phase is rated for 40 amps
(A) and has a direct current resistance (DCR) of 0.5 milliohms maximum. These parts can accommodate a 5A current imbalance between phases, ensuring they will operate well in less-than-ideal conditions.
"The Pulse PA131xNL family, when used with Volterra's chipsets, provides lower current ripple per phase, improved transient response, and higher efficiency," said Michael Arkin, Pulse Power Division product line manager. "Their lower transient inductance compared with traditional solutions reduces cost because fewer bulk capacitors are required to support high-transient-load applications such as high-performance central processing units and graphical processing units used in personal computers, workstations, and servers, dc-dc power for gaming consoles, video cards, and DDR SDRAM (double data rate synchronous DRAM) memory."
The Pulse PA131xNL family package dimensions and footprint were selected to match Volterra's requirements to enable second sourcing for the inductors while maintaining a low profile and small footprint. The sizes of the inductors are: 18.3 x 9.0 x 5.2mm, 27.3 x 9.0 x 5.2mm, 42.7 x 9.0 x 5.2mm and 36.6 x 9.0 x 5.2mm, for the PA1312NL, PA1313NL, PA1314NL, and PA1315NL, respectively.
These products are in production with samples available for approved Volterra customers using the Volterra chipset. The inductors are available packaged in tape and reel and in trays. Pricing in 50,000 unit quantities in US dollars is $0.45/piece for the PA1312NL,
$0.60/piece for the PA1313NL, $0.75/piece for the PA1314NL, and $0.90/piece for the PA1315NL.
