Renesas — Low-Cost Digital Modules Offer Efficient Power Supply for FPGAs, DSPs, ASICs and Memory

Renesas Electronics Corporation has introduced a family of encapsulated digital DC-DC converter modules with a PMBus™ interface. The five RAA210xxx modules offer advanced digital telemetry and high performance, and are as easy to use as Renesas’ analog power modules.

They are complete step-down regulated power supplies which operate from industry-standard 12V or 5V input power rails and produce an output of as much as 70A. The RAA210xxx family is intended for use as Point-of-Load (PoL) power supplies for FPGAs, DSPs, ASICs and memory.

Each device integrates a PWM controller, MOSFETs, inductor and passives in a thermally-efficient High Density Array (HDA) encapsulated package. All that is needed to complete the power supply are input and output bulk capacitors.

The RAA210xxx is a lower-cost, simplified digital power module family which is pin-compatible with Renesas’ full-featured ISL827xM series of digital power supplies.

The RAA210xxx simple digital power modules offer run-time digital programmability, 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 RAA210xxx power modules use Renesas’ patented ChargeMode™ control architecture which achieves up to 96% peak efficiency, and better than 90% efficiency under most conditions. They also provide a single clock-cycle fast response to output-current load steps, which reduces capacitance and saves cost and board space.