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Digital Power Established and Emerging in 2015

January 06, 2016 by Power Pulse1595211359

Digital Power technology has entered its second decade. It is at the same time an established and an emerging technology. The relative maturity of digital power can be seen in the combined use of digital control with SiC power switches in high-power uninterruptible power supplies and in ROHM's acquisition of Powervation aimed to enable the "strategic combination of Powervation's Intelligent Digital Power™ platform with ROHM's leading analog power technology." At the same time, the emergence of software-defined power concepts represents an emerging and in many respects a yet-to-be-defined area of digital power. The following are the ten most-read Digital Power stories on PowerPulse in 2015.

#1: 90A Digital POL points toward Software-Defined Power Architectures

Ericsson Power Modules has launched a new two-phase 90A 3E digital point-of-load (POL) dc-dc power module that offers compensation-free performance and the ability to easily connect modules in parallel to provide up to 360A to advanced network-processors that require high performance in power delivery and high levels of software control to improve flexibility. These advanced capabilities make the BMR465 ready for future Software-Defined Power Architecture (SDPA) systems, which power system architects foresee as the way forward to achieving highly efficient and energy-optimized network architectures by 2020. more

#2: Microsoft and Tesla Define Software-Defined Batteries

The concept of Software Defined Batteries (SDBs) is described in a paper that a team of researchers from Microsoft Corp, Tesla Motors, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Columbia University will present at the ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles this week. Different battery chemistries perform better on different axes, such as energy density, cost, peak power, recharge time, longevity, and efficiency. Mobile system designers are constrained by existing technology, and are forced to select a single chemistry that best meets their diverse needs, thereby compromising other desirable features. In this paper, the authors present a new hardware-software system, called Software Defined Battery, which allows system designers to integrate batteries of different chemistries. more

#3: Software-Defined Power one aim of Ericsson collaboration with Universities

Ericsson announced new collaborations with prestigious universities King's College London and Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden). The collective efforts will focus on 5G research, addressing both the technical implications and the societal challenges of implementing the next-generation of communications technology. The collaborations with the two universities will build on other leading European research institute and university collaborations in the 5G sphere, such as those with the Royal Institute of Technology, Chalmers University of Technology and Lund University in Sweden. more

#4: Digital Controller Looks toward Software-Defined Power

Microchip Technology Inc. announced the 14-member dsPIC33EP "GS" family of Digital Signal Controllers (DSCs). The dsPIC33EP "GS" family delivers the performance needed to implement more sophisticated non-linear, predictive and adaptive control algorithms at higher switching frequencies. These advanced algorithms enable power supply designs that are more energy efficient and have better power supply specifications. Higher switching frequencies enable the development of physically smaller power supplies that offer higher densities and lower costs. Compared with the previous generation of DSCs, the new dsPIC33EP "GS" devices provide less than half the latency, when used in a three-pole three-zero compensator, and consume up to 80% less power in any application. more

#5: SiC-based Three-Phase UPS is 98% Efficient

Toshiba International Corporation (TIC) announced its new G2020 Series uninterruptible power system (UPS). The G2020 Series is the latest three-phase UPS designed by Toshiba utilizing SiC power modules enabling the UPS to be 98% efficient with 50% load while operating in double-conversion mode. The G2020 Series UPS utilizes SiC power modules in a three-level design to provide customers with the ultimate in high efficiency power protection. Combining the latest in semiconductor technology with innovative circuit topology and high-performance full digital control ensures the highest level of reliable power quality to meet the demanding needs of the data center industry. more

#6: IEEE seeks Papers on Energy Efficiency and SDPAs for 5G Wireless

The IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (J-SAC) will be publishing a special Issue on "Energy-Efficient Techniques for 5G Wireless Communication Systems" in early 2016. Each issue of J-SAC is devoted to a specific technical topic and thus provides to J-SAC readers a collection of up-to-date papers on that topic. One of the most urgent and critical challenges in the design of 5G wireless communication systems is that of mitigating their energy consumption in light of a greatly increased data rate. Indeed while it has now been some years that the topic of energy-efficient design of communication networks has gained a prominent role, due to both economic reasons and environmental concerns on sustainable growth, it is expected that in the 5G era, with millions more base stations and billions of connected devices, the topic of "software-defined power architectures" (SDPAs) will be even more compelling. more

#7: Digital Isolators Provide up to 2W of Isolated Power

Silicon Laboratories, Inc. introduced a new family of high-speed, multi-channel digital isolators designed to provide a complete, highly-integrated solution for signal and power isolation. Silicon Labs' new Si88xx isolators feature an integrated dc-dc converter with 78% efficiency, deliver up to 2W of power, and offer very low EMI emissions and high noise immunity. The Si88xx family reduces system cost, speeds time-to-market and enhances reliability for applications in harsh, noisy operating environments including factory automation, process control, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), solar inverters and automotive battery management. more

#8: 99% Efficient Digital Inrush Current Controller Reference Design

IXYS Corporation announced the release of a reference design that makes use of Zilog's 8-bit Z8F3281 microcontroller - Digital Inrush Current Controller. With efficiency as high as 99.5 percent and the input operating voltages ranging from 80- to 240-Vac, it provides programmable inrush current limitation, instant overcurrent protection as well as corrective actions by the MCU. more

#9: ROHM Acquires Powervation for $70 Million

ROHM Co., Ltd. has completed the acquisition of Powervation Ltd., a privately held digital power IC company that develops Digital Power Management system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for approximately $70M, in an all-cash transaction. The strategic combination of Powervation's Intelligent Digital Power™ platform with ROHM’s leading analog power technology and global market access will enable the company to address a broad range of fast growing market opportunities, as customers increasingly adopt digital power solutions to power next generation high density systems and ICs such as Processors, Memory, FPGAs, and ASICs. more

#10: Digital PFC ICs target Light-Load Performance

Power Integrations announced its HiperPFSâ„¢-3 family of power factor correction ICs, which offer high power factor and high efficiency across the entire load range. Targeting applications with continuous power demands up to 405W for universal input and 900W for high-line, the ICs feature efficiency levels of better than 95% from 10% load to full load and consume less than 60 mW under no-load conditions. A power factor of above 0.92 is easily achievable at 20% load. more