There are more and more LSI (Large-Scale Integration) chips on the market, and these LSI chips need POL (Point-of-Load) DC-DC converters to adjust the power supply. This article will introduce the development trend of POL DC-DC converters and Murata solution.
The market demand of POL DC-DC converters is growing
With the development of the megatrend represented by 5G and IoT, the devices such as base stations and servers are increasingly required to carry out high-speed and large-capacity processing, thus more and more LSI chips such as microprocessors, DSP, FPGA and ASIC must be used. Due to the increasingly sophisticated manufacturing process of the chips, the performance of LSI chips is also increasing, and these LSI chips need to use POL DC-DC converters to adjust the power supply in order to give full play to the performance of the chips.
The POL DC-DC converter is configured next to LSI chip, which can provide distributed power close to load. POL power supply has a separate power regulator (linear regulator or DC-DC converter) near the load, which solves the design challenges such as high peak current and low noise margin faced by these high-performance semiconductor devices.
With the sophistication of the manufacturing process of these LSI chips, the power supply circuit for supplying power to LSI chips must reduce the voltage and increase the current. LSI chip failure can be prevented after reducing the voltage; therefore, it is necessary to improve the voltage accuracy and respond at high speed when the load changes. In addition, the power of the switching power supply will be output from the LDO (Low Dropout) regulator when a large current is used. It is more difficult to design now even if the previous circuit can be designed to be compact and simple. In addition, when switching power is generated, noise issue will also occur. As such, POL must have the characteristics of high voltage accuracy, fast transient response to load fluctuation, low radiation noise and compactness.
The DC-DC converter is a kind of device that converts DC to DC. As various ICs are mounted on matching circuit boards, these ICs have different inherent working voltage ranges and different voltage accuracy requirements. If the power supply with unstable voltage is used, problems such as failure will occur. Therefore, it is necessary for the DC-DC converter to convert to the required voltage or keep the voltage stable.
In general, there are 4 types of DC-DC converters, including the power supply device to reduce the voltage, which is usually called buck converter (or step-down converter), the power supply device to increase the voltage, which is called boost converter (or step-up converter), and the power supply device to support the voltage rise and fall at the same time, which is called buck-boost converter and the power supply device to generate the negative voltage, which is called negative voltage converter (inverting converter).
Smaller DC-DC solution for power supply rails of FPGA- MonoBKTM
To help designers and customers to solve the problems and get to the market faster with validated high performance solution. Murata has introduced a small POL DC-DC solution for FPGA power rail - MonoBKTM. These power modules integrate inductor, field-effect transistor (FET), compensation circuit and other passive components in small package.
Main features of the MonoBK DC-DC converter introduced by Murata include reducing noise through 3D construction design and simulation technology, so that noise filters are eliminated or reduced to save cost and test resources. In addition, it can support fast transient response, and reduce external components through circuit technology to save capacitor cost and solve the problem of lead time (L/T). MonoBK uses fewer external capacitors, and reduces the product size to save PCB cost. Monobk is a low-profile type product that can support narrow space and back mounting. The product comes in small footprint and high power density, which is suitable for use in complex application requiring high power density and small size. In addition, MonoBK can simplify product design, support high temperature operation, and have high product stability.
There is a wide range of MonoBK DC - DC converters, supporting a variety of different input voltages (3.3 V, 5 V, 12 V, 24 V, 36 V) and output voltages (0.7V~1.8V, 3.3V~5.0V, 5.0 V ~ 25 V, 1.0 V ~ 5.25 V), as well as a variety of output currents (2.5 A, 4 A, 6 A, 8 A, 12 A, 20 A, 24 A, 30A), and supporting multiple-channel multiple outputs, with optional product specification combinations to meet demands of different applications.
The MonoBK DC-DC converter has a wide range of target markets and applications, including telecommunications, servers, industrial control, automation, instrumentation, medical care, audio, etc. Main applications include mezzanine cards, PCI Express, edge computing systems, smart cameras, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, AI robots, PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), medical equipment, etc. MonoBK DC-DC converters manufactured by Murata will be the best choice for related applications.
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