A new kind of challenge

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.