ADI digital power controller helps power supply be efficient and intelligent

　　As energy saving and intelligence become major issues in today's world, power management is becoming more and more important, and the improvement of technology is constantly optimizing the energy efficiency of power systems. However, in the face of factors such as "high integration, intelligence, high efficiency, and high power density", digital power supplies have more advantages than analog power supplies, especially in complex systems with many strictly regulated power levels, requiring monitoring, data communication, and flexible control loops, when digital solutions can play their due role.

　　At the 2nd Power Technology Innovation and Application Forum held by Electronics Fans Network, Ou Yingyang, an application engineer from ADI, gave us an in-depth interpretation of the unique features of digital power technology; analyzed its excellent performance in terms of cost and performance, and jointly discussed the future innovation path of digital power.

　　Figure: ADI application engineer Ou Yingyang said that digital power controllers will further promote the field of power technology, demonstrate intelligent, high-efficiency, high-power density power systems, and gradually optimize digital power design, which has good market prospects.

　　A must-have for high-performance power supplies

　　We know that in power system design, the controller operating speed directly reflects the power performance, so how does ADI improve the efficiency of digital power control? Ou Yingyang took the advanced digital power controller ADP1055 with integrated PMBus interface launched by ADI as an example to give a detailed explanation. ADP1055 adopts ADI's high-resolution, high-speed analog-to-digital converter detection technology, and has a proprietary nonlinear transmission function. Its high-bandwidth performance and transient response can rival traditional analog switch controllers. ADP1055 integrates 11 high-speed ADC sensors, has high bandwidth, and has 6 PWM logic outputs. This chip is designed with built-in programs, and the programs are solidified in the chip, with ultra-high operating speed.

　　Ou Yingyang also emphasized that the quality of the power supply system is not only reflected in the operating speed, but power is also an important parameter to consider. The ADP1055 supports high-efficiency topology, built-in full-bridge function, precise drive timing and secondary-side synchronous rectifier control characteristics. The controller's GPIO (general purpose I/O) can be configured to support active clamp secondary-side high-efficiency buffering. Energy efficiency can be further optimized using adaptive dead time compensation, thereby improving efficiency within the load range. The programmable light load mode, coupled with the device's low power consumption (<150mW), can further reduce the system's standby power loss.

　　To help manufacturers accelerate product launch and engineers quickly develop new products, the ADP1055 also provides a comprehensive user interface (GUI) to facilitate loop filter feature design and safety feature programming. Users can program through the PMBus interface, and programmable protection functions include overcurrent protection (OCP), overvoltage protection (OVP), undervoltage lockout (UVLO) and external overtemperature protection (OTP), which can greatly improve the reliability of the power system.

　　It is particularly worth mentioning that the built-in EEPROM provides comprehensive programming options for the integrated loop filter, PWM signal timing, inrush current, soft start timing, and timing control. With the help of the ADP1055 digital power controller's graphical user interface (GUI), it is possible to design and save the settings in the highly reliable internal EEPROM memory, which can be encrypted at any time, and the security is very reliable.

　　Market Trend Interpretation

　　The digital power market is currently one of the fastest growing areas in the power management industry. Early adopters of digital power included information technology and communication infrastructure applications, such as servers and telecommunications/data communications equipment, and now digital power is also beginning to enter the consumer field. Digital power reduces the number of discrete components, reduces the overall footprint, improves power density and provides monitoring capabilities, thereby reducing the overall bill of materials cost and hardware complexity, while optimizing power levels and system requirements during operation. All of this can help speed up product launch, reduce the time and effort required to design systems, and ultimately reduce the cost of electronic systems. According to the report "The World Market for Digital Power" by IMS Research, a subsidiary of IHS, the global digital power market revenue is expected to increase to US$12.4 billion in 2017, which shows that the digital power market is on a clear upward trend.

　　Ou Yingyang pointed out that compared with traditional analog power supplies, the main difference of digital power supplies is the control and communication part. Digital power supplies have more advantages in complex high-performance system applications with more controllable factors, faster real-time response speed, and the need for multiple analog system power management. The power management functions that digital power supplies must perform can be retained in the analog area or transferred to the digital area. Digital power supplies can complete digital control of PWM control loops and digital power management and communication tasks. Digital power controllers have very broad application prospects in the fields of medical, industrial, and automation.