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Mark Adams of The AMP
Group explains why power
is presenting a new design challenge
for the industry, and how it’s being
addressed.
The word ‘digital’ has been adopted
by many sectors outside of electronics
to represent a new era in efficiency,
quality or simply just ability. In truth, as
those inside the electronics industry will
already appreciate, digital is all about
intelligent control, and subsequently it
works symbiotically with the analogue
world. The term ‘digital control’ is
equally rife within the industry because
it truly does represent a new era in
efficiency, particularly in reference to
power supplies.
Continued and prolonged semiconductor
breakthroughs - known as Moore’s Law
- has resulted in incrementally greater
integration, leading to higher power
demands at the board level, where
power density continues to rise. The
driver behind this increasing power
density is predominantly the demand
for functionality, which inevitably
requires more power-hungry processors
within a given form factor; nowhere
is this more apparent than in the
communications sector, fuelled by the
trend for ubiquitous connectivity. The
demand for on-demand video services,
the Internet of Things and our online
lives in general means network traffic
is rising at an incredible rate; according
to the recent Ericsson Mobility Report,
annual IP traffic will reach 7.7 zettabytes
by 2017 - an increase of 1 zettabyte
year-on-year since 2012.
The power demands for this level of
processing is already seeing individual
processors requiring well above 100A at
voltages as low as 0.6. Managing that
demand will require power supplies
that not only operate efficiently under
steady-state conditions, but are able to
react to large and frequent fluctuations;
it demands intelligent digital control. For
developers, this represents a significant
challenge, one that is increasingly being
met through the use of proven solutions
in the form of modularised power since
the time and resources needed to
design such complex discrete solutions
are no longer an option for OEMs.
However, while the challenge of meeting
power demands can and has been
moved to the module provider, their
challenge is also increasing. With such
high currents and tolerances to deliver,
there is no room for compromise, which
is forcing module providers to accelerate
the development of intelligent digital
control for power supply modules.
This is the new challenge that the
power industry now faces, and while
digital control may not lead to smaller
power supplies, it will provide greater
stability and flexibility, allowing it to
successfully address more complex
power applications.
And although applications require
leading edge performance from the
power module, OEMs are still demanding
a multi-source solution to minimize
supply chain risk. The digital layer
that allows power modules to address
challenging applications also adds a
new layer of complexity to the module.
Through unprecedented collaboration,
three of the industry’s leading power
supply companies have formed the
Architects of Modern Power Group
(www.ampgroup.com) and are working
together to deliver the most technically
advanced end-to-end distributed power
solutions to deliver true plug-and-play
multi-sourcing. This long-term strategic
alliance will enable the power design
community to benefit from world-
leading technology innovation and
unrivalled supply chain security.
H
A new kind of challenge
Mark Adams, AMP
48 l New-Tech Magazine Europe