Summit Micro Programmable Environmental Monitor Provides Real-Time Power

Summit Microelectronics has announced the new SMM151/2/3 product family of environmental monitoring products. The devices provide complete digital power supply monitoring and control functions, utilizing I²C for communication. The company claims that their unique ability to measure system input current eliminates the efficiency and accuracy issues associated with monitoring output current. The monitoring semiconductors are suitable for high-reliability environments requiring real-time power intelligence, high-accuracy monitoring and system protection to ensure high performance and zero downtime. Typical applications are in computing, data communications, and telecommunications.

Summit’s new environmental monitors allow input current and differential output voltage monitoring via integrated, high-accuracy, 10-bit A/D conversion. This allows systems to obtain real-time power information and adjust operating modes for achieving maximum efficiency. Unlike other solutions that monitor output current, the SMM151/2/3 measure input current. This eliminates the side effects of the output sense resistor adding directly to the output impedance of the supply and resulting in higher voltage drops.

The SMM151 and SMM152 devices provide output voltage margining with a range of 0.3V to VDD (up to 5V) or a wider range via an external resistor divider. The high-accuracy (1% or better) control of the output voltage ensures signal integrity of digital chips, even when low-accuracy dc-dc converters are utilized. Furthermore, margining during development or production enables worst-case testing of power supply tolerance combinations, thereby increasing overall system reliability for maximum product quality and minimum field failure rates (and associated costs). The SMM151 and SMM152 allow margining control via I2C commands or two dedicated pins.

All devices offer two general-purpose voltage comparators that can be used for detecting under- and over-voltage conditions. Furthermore, the SMM152 and SMM153 also integrate four general-purpose inputs/outputs, whose power-on state is determined by non-volatile memory settings. Two logic outputs are also available for notifying the system of error conditions and of margining status.

The SMM151/2/3 family is suitable for a wide range of computing and datacom equipment such as computing servers, wireless and wireline routers, switches, storage servers, telecom equipment, as well as other "high-reliability" applications utilizing high-performance ASICs, CPUs, DSPs and FPGAs. The real-time power supply information is particularly useful in applications that focus on high-efficiency (Green) operation.

The SMM151/2/3 operate directly from +2.7V to +5.5V input, however their current sense input can accept voltages from +4.0V to +15V, making them suitable for monitoring +12V power input rails. The devices have an operating temperature range of +0oC to +70oC or -40oC to +85oC and are available in the space-saving 5mm x 5mm 28-pad QFN package that is lead-free and RoHS-standard compliant.

Available now in production quantities, the SMM151 and SMM152 devices are priced at $3.49 and $3.79 respectively, each in quantities of 1,000 units (commercial temperature range). The SMM153 is priced at $2.79 for a quantity of 1,000 units (commercial temperature range).