TI Introduces GUI-Configurable Digital Power Controllers for Point-of-Load Systems
Texas Instruments Inc. introduced four new Fusion Digital Power™ products that enable point-of-load digital power management in telecom and data-centric applications. TI plans to demonstrate several innovative digital power platforms, including its new configurable, dual-phase synchronous buck controller, at the Digital Power Forum (DPF) 2006 in Dallas, September 18-20.
TI's single-phase UCD9111 and dual-phase UCD9112 controllers implement digital pulse width modulators (PWM) with 175 picosecond (ps) resolution, and are fully configurable via a graphical user interface (GUI) for monitoring, control and management for point-of-load power conversion – without the need to write a single line of software. GUI configuration allows a designer to intelligently manage the power supply's voltage and current thresholds and response, soft start, margining, loop compensation and many other features.
The UCD9111 and UCD9112 incorporate a control law accelerator peripheral, which performs full-digital loop control while supporting switching frequencies of up to 2 MHz. The controllers' architecture is optimized to deliver high power performance with unique functionality, such as differential voltage feedback for common mode rejection and 175 ps PWM resolution to support wide input to output voltage ratios at high switching frequencies without limiting the output resolution.
Additionally, the UCD9111 and UCD9112 devices support up to 80 PMBus™ interface commands for control, configuration and management of the power supply, while requiring a minimal supply current as low as 7 mA during normal operation. To support the microcontroller-based UCD9111 and UCD9112 devices and previously announced ™S320F28x™ line of digital signal processor-based controllers, TI also introduced the UCD7230 2-MHz synchronous buck driver with high and low side 4A drivers and an integrated 3.3V linear regulator. The UCD7230 also incorporates cycle-by-cycle current limit and a low offset current sense amplifier to provide average inductor-current information to the controller. In a dual-phase configuration, the current measurement enables the driver to perform current-balancing of the two phases to achieve higher efficiency and increased system reliability. Together, the UCD7230 driver and digital power controller allows a digital power designer to minimize the number of external components required to construct a fully digital dc-dc converter.
Starting Monday at the Digital Power Forum, TI will showcase several innovative digitally controlled solutions for power applications. In addition to a dual-phase, synch buck EVM featuring the UCD9112 and UCD7230, TI will demonstrate its new GUI-configurable UCD9080 eight-rail power manager for sequencing and monitoring a power supply.
Samples of TI's UCD9111 and UCD9112 digital power controllers will be available in a 32-pin QFN package in the fourth quarter of 2006. Suggested resale pricing for the devices in quantities of 1,000 units is $2.95 for the UCD9111 and $3.35 for the UCD9112. The UCD7230 is sampling in a 20-pin QFN package with a suggested resale price of $0.80 in quantities of 1,000 units. The UCD9080 is sampling in a 32-pin QFN package and has a suggested resale price of $2.95 in 1,000 units. Volume production for all four products is expected in first quarter of 2007.
