TI Unveils Digital Power System Controllers

Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) introduced its third-generation Fusion Digital Power controllers and plug-in modules.

The products are designed to digitally manage up to four independent digital-control loops and up to eight phases, while improving energy efficiency up to 30% during light load conditions, according to TI.

TI's four-output, multi-phase UCD9240 power system controllers implement digital pulse width modulators (PWM) with 250 picoseconds resolution and are configurable via a graphical user interface (GUI) for monitoring, control and management for direct current (DC)/DC point-of-load power conversion.

GUI configuration allows a designer to intelligently manage the power supply's voltage and current thresholds and response, soft start, margining, sequencing, tracking, phase management, loop response, fan control and many other features.

The UCD9240 incorporates the Fusion Digital Power peripheral, which performs full-digital loop control while supporting switching frequencies of up to 2 MHz.

The controller is designed to support up to 100 PMBus interface commands for control, configuration and management of the power supply, while requiring a minimal supply current as low as 40 milliampere (mA) during operation.

The UCD9240 controller incorporates a unique phase management feature that enables the power supply to operate at high efficiency over the range of the load, said TI. Phase management allows the user to turn on or off phases of the power supply so that only the phases required to power the load are enabled.

In addition, the UCD9240 allows the user to optimize the loop response for the operating condition and meet acceptable transient response over the load range.

TI also introduced two PowerTrain plug-in modules that further simplify the DC/DC converter design by providing a high-degree of configurability when used with the UCD9K family of controllers.

The PTD08A010W and PTD08A020W 10-A and 20-A modules integrate the inductor, field effect transistors (FETs) and TI's UCD7230 driver with current sense capability plus integrated short circuit protection to provide stable and reliable operation of the power supply while protecting the system, said TI.