» ALTHOUGH THE POWER-ONE development tool got top marks on aggregate for technical significance in this category, many Readers were somewhat lukewarm in their verbatim comments. The second-ranked product, an LED driver from Linear Technology, garnered more enthusiasm. Both products were first reviewed on eeProductCenter in mid March.

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POWER-ONE
Integrated Development tool brings power-management to power
eeProductCenter: "Power-One bills its Z-Series system, built around its touted 'Z-One Digital IBA' architecture, as the first truly integrated power-management-with-power-conversion development tool for board-level applications. The highly scaleable system, using in-house silicon to eliminate component incompatibility issues and to cut system development costs by 20 percent, board space by half, and component count by 90 percent, includes the company's 20-amp Z-POL DC/DC (ZY7120) pointof- load converter; a digital power manager (DPM, the ZM7100); Z-One digital bus; and ZIOS operating system to simplify configuration, simulation, and management in cutting time-to-market. Through a PC-based graphical user interface (GUI), designers can configure up to 32 POLs via the (single) DPM controller. The bus can address all 32 Z-POL converters in a single communications cycle."
Readers say: » "The Z-Series system appears to really enable distributed power architectures. I especially like the PC based GUI for configuring remote POL converters." » "Marginal design. Needs more features." » "Appears the concept is scalable to configuration control on power grids." » "What about mass-production configuration? Is there an automated programming capability? Published communication spec?" » "I am not sure what the benefit that this device brings to a system. It might be good for rapid prototyping."
USABILITY RANK: 1

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LINEAR TECHNOLOGY
Chip drives 20 white LEDs
eeProductCenter: "Linear Technology's LT3466 is a dual step-up DC/DC converter that can drive up to 20 white LEDs from a (3.6-volt) lithium-ion source. Its high efficiency, current-mode and fixed-frequency operation ensure uniform LED brightness, low noise and maximum battery life, while on-chip Schottky diodes eliminate both the added cost and space requirements of external diodes. Its two independent converters are capable of driving asymmetric LED strings (up to 10 in series per converter) from an input voltage of 2.7 to 24 volts, suiting it to applications from handheld devices to automotives. The step-up converters have independent dimming and shutdown control of each string. Efficiency is as high as 81 percent."
Readers say: » "I would think this would have huge societal benefits." » "These LEDs will be everywhere. Very timely." » "Does everything you need in a simple low voltage LED driver." » "Good for uniform illumination. If diode strings could be divided up, could also be used for variable brightness status indicators." » "LEDs will replace conventional bulbs in the near future. This product will have a large market share."
USABILITY RANK: 2

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VALENCE TECHNOLOGY
Modular Li+ battery system powers more portables
eeProductCenter: "Touting a step improvement in flexibility, Valence Technology bills its second generation lithium- ion battery system, the modular N-Charge II, as a compact, lightweight upgrade of the company's N-Charge Power System. The basic N-Charge II system, weighing 1.5 pounds, can power 90- and 120-watt notebook PCs for up to 5 hours beyond that provided by the notebook's internal source. Users can add a snap-on expansion pack (1.3 pounds) to double that run-time. With 'smart tip' technology from Mobility Electronics that replaces mobile device adapters with interchangeable plugs, the N-charge II system can also power a variety of devices ranging from portable DVD players, cell phones, and MP3 players to digital cameras."
USABILITY RANK: 3

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AUSTRIAMICROSYSTEMS
Every function in this power-management IC
eeProductCenter: "Austriamicrosystems touts its AS3603, an enhanced version of its AS3601 power management platform, as an industry benchmark for functionality and flexibility for mobile applications including cell phones, PDAs, and digital cameras. It features a DC/DC converter and ultra-low power LDOs, all programmable in 0.05-volt steps. The AS3603's feature set also includes a driver for white LEDs, and a programmable 1-watt audio amplifier. The company says this chip takes up less than half the space of competing solutions, and is half the cost."
Readers say: » "Looks a like good product ...if its price was $1.25, they would sell tons!"
USABILITY RANK: 5

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VISHAY
200-V MOSFET is suited to power switching
eeProductCenter: "Vishay touts its Si7820DN as the first 200-V power MOSFET available in a PowerPAK 1212-8 package (3.3-by-3.3-by-1.7 mm), making it the industry's smallest. But electrically, this device's most significant specification is its low gate charge (typically 12.1 nanocoulombs), which the company says makes it the first such 200-V part suited to applications as a switching MOSFET in a DC/DC converter. The n-channel device, rated at 2.5 amps, also features an on-resistance of 240 milliohms (at Vgs=10). Its PowerPAK package is rated for a power dissipation of 3.8 watts, nearly double that any MOSFET device with a TSSOP-8-size footprint or smaller, according to the company. Its typical thermal resistance is 1.9 °C/W, as compared to the 16°C/W for an industry standard SO-8 package."
Readers say: » "This MOSFET has some pretty nice performance characteristics." » "Nice product. I would have liked more information on the drive and time response." » "Its low Rds-on seems to be the key benefit."
USABILITY RANK: 4

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CELESTICA
Sixteenth-brick adopts 1.11-by-0.9 inch footprint
eeProductCenter: "Celestica's SHS20 DC/DC converter, in its S-Class series, represents the company's first sixteenth- brick product as part of a collaboration with Cherokee International to establish an industry-standard form-factor for these modules. The device, with a footprint of 1.11-by-0.9 inches and 0.4 inches high, delivers 20 amps at 2.5 volts from a nominal 48-volt input."
Readers say: » "Good design." » "Interesting collaboration."
USABILITY RANK: 6

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CALIFORNIA MICRO DEVICES
Charge-pump/LDO for audio cuts noise
eeProductCenter: "The CM3702 from California Micro Devices is an integrated charge-pump and low-dropout regulator (LDO) for providing clean power to the audio codecs in notebook PCs and consumer electronics, the first chip of its kind according to the company. Running off a 3- to 5.5-volt input, it provides 5 volts to the analog input of the codec while maintaining high power supply ripple rejection (PSRR) across the entire audio band. The CM3702 can also be used in applications requiring a regulated 5-volt output, including PCMCIA cards, white-LED drivers, flash memory supplies, 3- to 5-volt SIM cards and backup-battery boost converters."
Readers say: "Great idea to control the charge pump output to maintain a small drop across the LDO."
USABILITY RANK: 7

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INTERNATIONAL RECTIFIER
Dual-output power-blocks advance POL apps
eeProductCenter: "International Rectifier touts the iP1201 and iP1202 as the industry's first dual-output, twophase DC/DC power blocks of their kind. 'These single- BGA products are a parallel extension to our iPOWIR portfolio of multichip modules (MCMs),' says Carl Smith, marketing manager for networking communications products. 'The iP2001 (released in 2001) addressed high-current multiphase applications mainly for computing. Our new iP1201 and iP1202 are low- to mid-power, bi-phase MCMs for the netcom space.' The company says these high-density modules, which are suited to point-of-load applications, reduce board space by up to 59 percent over an equivalent discrete solution, up to 30 percent for the complete converter versus a discrete design, and up to 16 percent over a brick-style solution."
USABILITY RANK: 8

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POTENTIA SEMICONDUCTOR
Power-management designer cuts time-to-market
eeProductCenter: "Potentia Semiconductor's PowerCenter design tool simplifies power management designs in board-mounted systems, cutting development time from weeks to hours. The hardware-with-software product includes a family of four isolated/non-isolated power subsystem controller chips and emulator hardware, glued together by point-and-click software that enables designers to quickly envision topology and configure their requirements for monitoring, sequencing, margining, and fault handling for multi-rail systems."
USABILITY RANK: 9

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ARTESYN TECHNOLOGIES
POLs tout high speed, high density
eeProductCenter: "Artesyn Technologies' ultra-compact SMT12F point-of-load (POL) converter is designed to support very fast step-load changes for powering state-of-theart silicon devices and systems in applications ranging from enterprise routers to wireless base stations. Boasting a transient response of 200 A/microsecond and a footprint of just 0.52-by-0.63 inches largely by virtue of its advanced integrated, monolithic silicon controller design, the (nonisolated) module delivers up to 12 amps at 0.9 to 3.3 volts from a 3-to 5.5-volt input."
USABILITY RANK: 10