Power Management ICs Meet Growing Needs

Now more than ever, every electronic product needs a power management IC. Cell phones, routers, modems, servers, portable media players, mobile gaming units, base stations and a multitude of other products are adding to their already prodigious list of features, which means they need more power, as well as smarter devices to help parcel out that power.

On this page, we're providing a glimpse of some of the most recent product rollouts in the power management world. Here are products from Analog Devices, Fairchild, National Semiconductor and Texas Instruments, all of which share a common trait: They help designers regulate power in a power-hungry world.

TI's Digital Signal Controller

As power supplies grow more complex and the number of channels on them rises, designers are looking for better ways to manage the complexity. Texas Instruments' TMS320F28044 digital signal controller addresses that challenge by being the industry's first — and only — single programmable controller that manages up to 16 dc/dc converter channels. TI engineers say its ability to handle large, multi-channel power supplies places it in a position to deal with a wide variety of applications, ranging from telecommunications and networking infrastructure equipment to servers, laptops, high-efficiency motor controls, solar inverters, wind turbine generators and fuel cells.

National Semiconductor's Buck Regulators

National Semiconductor's Simple Switcher buck regulators enable novice and seasoned power supply designers to "dial in" size and efficiency requirements. Using the company's Webench suite of tools and prototype power supply kit, engineers can design, verify and ship within 24 hours, the company says. The new family of regulators provides maximum input range from 6 to 75V at 3A and switching frequencies up to 1 MHz. Features include adjustable soft start, synchronization and ramp control.

Analog Devices' Digital Isolator

Analog Devices' ADuM1250 is said to be the industry's "first true bi-directional digital isolator." It can be used to isolate cost-sensitive, two-wire buses, such as I2C, SMBus and PMBus. By eliminating the opto-couplers and support circuitry previously required in isolated I2C interfaces, the new isolator reportedly reduces board space by 80 percent and achieves lower-cost I2C solutions. It also supports data rates up to 1 Mbps operating at 105C. ADI says the ADuM1250 also dramatically reduces cost and time-to-market.

Fairchild Buck Regulator

Fairchild's FAN2106 TinyBuck is a 6A, 3 to 24V input synchronous regulator that integrates a PWM controller, high- and low-side MOSFETs and a boot diode into one device. Fairchild describes it as "the smallest buck converter solution with a wide V_in range and high I_out all in one package." The synchronous buck regulator has high power efficiency (up to 95 percent), which results in less wasted heat and better battery life. It also features a wide output voltage range wherein the output can go to 90 percent of input voltage and down to 0.8V.