Design engineers can also generate higher current rated rails by connecting up to four units in parallel so that up to 320A can be supplied as a single power rail.
Both analogue control and digital control functions are enabled on this unit, so the LGA80D can be controlled with resistors or controlled and monitored by using the industry-standard PMBus digital interface. Artesyn’s LGA80D digital DC/DC converter is suitable for use in applications such as graphics, data or video processing, using high power devices, such as server processors, FPGAs, supercomputers, network, storage and telecom equipment.
“As the circuit boards in telecom and data centre systems have become more complex and densely populated, every component is under pressure to provide maximum value with the additional target of reducing the physical size,” said Andy Brown, DC/DC technical marketing director for Artesyn Embedded Technologies. “The key is to increase the amps per square inch current density of non-isolated converters with the objective of freeing up space that can be used to increase the computing power of a board by reducing the amount of real estate used for power conversion. Adding one square inch can make a significant difference, with the released space available to be used for additional processing functions.”
The input voltage and output voltage specifications are said to remain the same in any configuration, so the input is defined as 7.5 to 14V and the output voltage can be adjusted within the range of 0.6 to 5.2V meaning that a range of semiconductor devices and applications can be supported.
For simple evaluation, configuration and monitoring, Artesyn offers a PC-based graphical software package in conjunction with an evaluation kit. Two intuitive tabs allow developers to enter the required settings for individual converters and monitor the status and parameters. The demonstration board is fitted with two LGA80D modules allowing design engineers to test independent channel, or stacked-module operation.