Intersil’s digital power controller addresses densely populated power systems

Date
12/18/2013

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Intersil, a leading provider of innovative power management and precision analog solutions, expanded its industry-leading family of power management ICs with a highly-integrated, innovative digital DC/DC power controller that reduces design risk, time, and cost for developers of complex power systems.

The ZL8800 is a Dual Channel/Dual Phase controller that utilizes a ChargeMode control loop technology to deliver fast transient response without the need for compensation, reducing design time. It provides best-in-class transient response for digital Point of Loads (POLs), saving on output capacitance and board space, important benefits for the advanced power systems found in the latest generation of base-stations, routers, and similar infrastructure designs.

These complex systems require designers to fully control and monitor every power rail in order to maximize reliability, and typically use monitors and sequencers to provide added functionality around the POL converters. The ZL8800 integrates all of these functions, so a designer can monitor and control every aspect of the power supply through a PMBus™ interface, without the need for additional parts. Telemetric data is available on the power supply, including temperature, input current, output current, input voltage, output voltage and fault status.

Each ZL8800 output can operate independently or together in a dual phase configuration for high current applications. The device supports a wide range of output voltages (0.54V to 5.5V) operating from input voltages from 4.5V up to 14V.

ZL8800 Supported by PowerNavigator GUI to Simplify System Design
The company also announced today the latest generation of its PowerNavigator™ graphical user interface, enabling designers to leverage all the capabilities of the ZL8800 digital controller without writing a line of code. Designers can use the drag-and-drop utility to set up and control any power supply architecture, further simplifying the development effort.

“The ZL8800 is Intersil’s fourth generation digital controller. We have a proven track record of innovation in the digital power market, and our latest platform sets a new standard for capability and ease of use,” said Mark Downing, senior vice president of Intersil’s Industrial and Infrastructure Products. “Customers are now demanding the many benefits of digital power, and we’re delivering solutions that lets them realize those benefits simply and easily.”

Features
• Compensation free design saves development time
• Integrated LDOs enable single supply operation from 12V
• Single wire DDC bus enables sequencing and fault management across multiple Intersil devices
• Non-volatile memory allows users to store all configuration and setup parameters

Pricing and Availability
The ZL8800 is available in a 7 x 7 44-pin QFN package with prices starting at $4.90 each, in 1,000-piece units. There are also two evaluation kits available, the ZL8800-2CH-DEMO1Z
2-output demo board, and the ZL8800-2PH-DEMO1Z, a 60A 2-phase demo board. Both are available for $150.00 each.

Intersil

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