Ericsson Introduces Eighth Brick Sized DC-DC Bus Converter

Ericsson Power Modules introduced an eighth brick sized PKB-NG dc-dc bus converter that provides an output power of 300W at 42A. According to the company, with high output power and high efficiency, the converter sits alongside the best products on the market and offers users the opportunity to attain higher power levels in a smaller packaging than traditional quarter brick units. Alternatively, it is said toenables users to achieve higher power in a standard eighth-brick format when upgrading boards for higher performance.

End-customers are constantly adding functionality to applications, requiring more power per board while simultaneously expecting a reduction of space allocated to the on-board power sources. Fully titled PKB4302NG, this latest converter is said to allow them to achieve this as the power available is up 15% compared to some of the existing quarter bricks on the market.

The PKB4302NG is available in through hole and baseplate variations. This fixed ratio intermediate bus converter features an input voltage range of 38V to 55V and for versatility is configured with an industry standard footprint and pin out.

The converter meets the insulation requirements of EN60950 and comes complete with industry standard features such as remote on/off, over-temperature protection, output over-current and over-voltage protection, and input under-voltage protection. The most important application areas for the converter are datacom/networking, wireless networks, optical network equipment, server and data storage.

The PKB4302NG is said to offer outstanding electrical and thermal performance, as well as high reliability under stressful operating conditions. It offers an efficiency figure of 97% at 48Vin from 50%-100% load. The company states that excellent thermal performance is achieved at full power at 70°C with 2metres/sec airflow of cooling.

Careful PCB routing ensures low thermal as well as low electrical resistance. All loops that carry switching currents are kept to a minimum, resulting in low parasitic inductance. The electrical design employs a patent pending technique called �SynchFET gate drive stretch, whereby the efficiency of the synchronous rectifiers is further increased. With the already released quarter brick intermediate bus converter PKM-NG, this latest eighth brick from Ericsson completes their fixed ratio IBC product portfolio.

The PKB4302NG is priced at $31.05 in OEM quantities.