XMC Digital Power Explorer Helps Analog Power Supply Designers Start with Digital Power Control

The XMC Digital Power Explorer Kit utilizes Infineon’s industry-leading XMC range of ARM® Cortex™-M microcontrollers, OptiMOS™ BSC0924NDI MOSFETs and IRS2011S high and low side drivers. The kit’s power board features synchronous buck converter with on-board resistive load banks. The load banks can be switched between 10%, 55% and 100% of the maximum load, so that the transient response and the quality of the control loop under different load conditions can be tested (for example continuous conduction mode vs. discontinuous conduction mode). The kit also includes 2 different control card options, XMC1300 control card (ARM® Cortex™-M0) and XMC4200 control card (ARM® Cortex™-M4F) with isolated on-board debugger, which allow designers to easy evaluate both XMC microcontroller families and make the right price/performance choice for their application. Multiple test points are provided on the power board for checking the quality of all the relevant signals. Communication option via PMBus™ is provided for easy integration in more complex power management systems.

 

 

The XMC Digital Power Explorer Kit has been aimed at analog power supply designers and embedded software programmers who need to accelerate their learning curve in digital power control. Infineon’s free DAVE™v4 IDE, including digital power APPs and plenty of other examples, provide all the necessary tool and software support to quickly get started with using XMC microcontrollers in digital power control applications.

Basically slope compensation feature (inside the microcontroller)is only available on XMC4200 control card (i.e. XMC1000 family doesn’t have that feature implemented). For the use case when XMC1300 control card is used in peak current control mode, we implemented slope compensation function on the power board (bypassed in case of using XMC4200), which is not as accurate and flexible as integrated one, but that shows the tradeoffs which customers face when using low end/low-cost micro vs. high-end micro.

 

 

The kit has been developed in collaboration with Biricha Digital Ltd. and Würth Elektronik. Biricha Digital designed the power board employing years of training and consulting experience in digital power control. Würth Elektronik contributed by providing the best-in-class passive components and connectors, including their high-performance inductors and capacitors, perfectly fitting digital power control applications.

 

About Infineon

Infineon Technologies AG is a world leader in semiconductor solutions that make life easier, safer and greener. Microelectronics from Infineon is the key to a better future. In the 2019 fiscal year (ending 30 September), the Company reported sales of €8.0 billion with about 41,400 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and in the USA on the over-the-counter market OTCQX International Premier.