Ericsson has introduced two new vertical-mounting members into its family of 3E digital PoL voltage regulators aimed at space-critical applications.
Picture: Ericsson Power Modules
The new 12A BMR462-SIP (BMR4622002) and 20A BMR463-SIP (BMR4632002) complement the recently announced 40A BMR464-SIP (BMR4642002).
Ericsson says it observed that migration from single-core to multi-core processors and advanced FPGAs, in addition to the increasing trend for system upgrades with new boards featuring additional features, has led to increasing amounts of functionality being implemented on board-level designs. Designers now have to assign board-allocation priorities to ‘core’ components such as microprocessors and limit the space available to ‘peripheral’ devices such as the voltage regulator.
The 12A BMR462-SIP, 20A BMR463-SIP and 40A BMR464-SIP meet these demands to save valuable board space for core components, as they enable vertical mounting – also known as single in-line packaging (SIP). The SIP approach means the BMR462-SIP and BMR463-SIP offer footprints of 1.58cm2 and 1.99cm2, respectively, making them ideal for space-critical applications. The primary applications for these devices are network routers, data storage and AdvancedTCA boards; their height of 15.6 mm makes them suitable for 15mm narrow-pitch applications.
Both devices offer 66W of power, input voltage from 4.5V to 14V, and typical power efficiency of 97.1% at 5V input, 3.3V output and half load. The BMR462-SIP and BMR463-SIP deliver power densities of 38W/cm2 and 33W/cm2, with dimensions of 20.8 x 7.6 x 15.6 mm (0.82 x 0.30 x 0.612 in) and 26.3 x 7.6 x 15.6 mm (1.035 x 0.30 x 0.612 in), respectively.
The voltage regulators can be configured and monitored via PMBus and the company’s graphical user interface offers designers the ability to fully optimise power management in high board-density applications.
Most power converters use synchronous rectification to optimise efficiency over a wide range of I/O conditions. However, at light loads the synchronous MOSFET will typically sink current and introduce additional energy losses associated with higher peak inductor currents, resulting in reduced efficiency. The device’s adaptive diode emulation mode turns off the low-side FET gate drive at low load currents to prevent the inductor current from going negative, reducing the energy losses and increasing overall efficiency.
The two devices also offer a synchronisation feature that allows several regulators to be locked to a common switching frequency to eliminate beat frequencies. This reduces EMI filtering complexity and the number of external components needed. Additionally, phase spreading reduces input capacitance requirements, and hence losses, because the peak current drawn from the input supply is spread over the whole switching cycle.
ECN Europe 