Digital technology improves power density and power management

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Overview:
There are many places in a power system that can use digital technology, one is the power supply internal circuit itself, and the power management and monitoring functions are implemented at the system level. This article will discuss the first case in detail. This paper compares the internal control functions of the on-board power supply (BMPS) with the system-level implementation of digital technology and more traditional analog methods. For each of the solutions mentioned in the comparison, end users of BMPS can use the device in a traditional way without the need for additional system level digital technology. It relies on actual case studies and uses the actual product units as a reference. Two digital design schemes were used in the study. One is a size-optimized design that provides output power similar to the analog design but with a smaller physical size. Another option is to output an optimized design that maintains a similar form factor to the analog design but increases the output power. In all three design approaches, the basic power transfer topology remains the same, focusing the focus on how to use digital control techniques to achieve design flexibility. Some aspects of interest in the comparison include electrical performance, efficiency, component count, power density, cost, and reliability. The comparison is based on the interests of the end user and not the BMPS designer.

The BMPS used in this case comparison is Ericsson's PMH8918L point-of-load (POL) regulator. This is a 18A non-isolated synchronous buck regulator with programmable output voltage and a nominal input voltage of 12V. This product is the latest product, and its many indicators are competitive, so it is the best representative of the load point regulator using analog control. In a previously published article, it has been estimated that for the same 18A output current, digital technology can reduce the PCB area by 40-50%, or, for the same package size, the output current can be increased to 35A. It turns out that these estimates are actually too conservative when using digital control techniques, and it is even possible to achieve higher power and current densities.
In addition to considering the benefits of the digital control of the POL regulator itself, a new interface connector has been added to the digital section to allow digital power management techniques to be utilized at will in the power system. The addition of this connector does not change the performance of the POL, or the comparison of analog and digital control methodologies. The addition of this connector proves that the implementation of this optional system function has no substantial adverse impact on the cost and size of the BMPS.

As noted above, the content herein is limited to the trade-off between technology and performance at the BMPS level. In order to obtain more relevant content, including the expansion of digital technology in the field of power system management, readers can refer directly to the white paper in the reference catalog [4].
(Please read the PDF for details)