Renesas Electronics RAA210xxx simple digital power modules

Renesas Electronics has announced a family of encapsulated digital DC/DC PMBus power modules. The five RAA210xxx simple digital power modules offer advanced digital telemetry and performance, and are as easy to use as the company’s analog power modules.

The family provides point-of-load (POL) conversion for advanced FPGAs, DSPs, ASICs and memory used in servers, storage, optical networking and telecom equipment. They are complete step-down regulated power supplies that deliver 25, 33, dual 25, 50 and 70 A of output current, while operating from industry-standard 12 or 5 V input power rails.

Each device integrates a PWM controller, MOSFETs, inductor and passives inside a thermally optimised, high-density array (HDA) encapsulated module — all that is needed to complete the power supply are input and output bulk capacitors. The HDA package offers good electrical and thermal performance at full load through a single-layer conductive package substrate that efficiently transfers heat from the module to the system board, and dissipates it without requiring airflow or heatsinks.

The family is pin-to-pin compatible with the company’s full-featured digital ISL827xM series. The power modules offer run-time digital programmability to support configuration changes with a subset of PMBus commands, and full telemetry and system monitoring. If more advanced digital control is later required, upgrading to the pin-compatible ISL827xM modules will enable current sharing with multiple modules connected in parallel, access to all PMBus commands using the PowerNavigator tool and non-volatile memory for configuration storage.

The modules leverage ChargeMode control architecture, which delivers up to 96% peak efficiency and better than 90% efficiency under most conditions. They also provide single-clock-cycle fast transient response to output current load steps, which reduces capacitance and saves board space. The HDA package offers good electrical and thermal performance at full load through a single-layer conductive package substrate that efficiently transfers heat from the module to the system board and dissipates it without requiring airflow or heatsinks.