Publication date: 22 December 2009
Power supply design is advancing rapidly. Growing environmental and economic pressure has spurred manufacturers to rapid innovation. As a result, the efficiency bar has been raised from 75-80% a decade or so back to 90-94% today. New concepts like digital power promise further improvements on even this very high level of efficiency.
The days are gone when a non-specialist engineer can get away with a ‘good enough’ power supply developed as an afterthought, often by reusing the design from a previous generation of product. Only designers who live and breathe the technology have the time and expertise to build an optimised solution that delivers the required performance.
Power supply specialist FAEs from distributors have a key part to play in helping non-specialist designers with the tough choices that they face in choosing the optimum solution to power their system. This decision will involve meeting tight voltage and current specifications within a set of constraints including size and cost – and at the maximum efficiency. By working in partnership with a distributor such as Avnet Abacus that offers a broad portfolio from the top manufacturers as well as niche and specialist vendors, the optimum solution can be identified.
Often this solution will be based on some of the exciting new technologies emerging in the power field. For example, ‘digital power’ technology adds another dimension at module and board level in power optimization. A key advantage that the digital approach provides is the ability to dynamically adjust the DC/DC converter control loop in response to changing load and line conditions by substituting adaptive algorithms for fixed analogue time-constants. Varying the dead-time between a buck-converter’s switches conducting over a wide input-voltage range can improve efficiency by as much as 5%.
A visit from a distributor power supply product specialist can yield recommendations of solutions that offer not only a technical best fit, but are also viable from a commercial and logistical perspective, considering issues like lead-times and availability. Taken together, these services can not only save design time, cost and risk, but also lead to a better end result that delivers the required system power more efficiently within less space.
Make no mistake, the power supply is becoming a differentiator to many, if not most end customers. Customers know that the cost of the energy used by a product can exceed its purchase price – and is rising. Users resent the inconvenience of heavy, bulky power adaptors. This concern is creating a fertile climate for regulation, and there is positive pressure for mandatory and voluntary codes of practice to covering power supply performance and efficiency. These come on top of the established burden of EMC control regulations.
The best way to stay on in control of this nest of concerns, challenges and regulations is to tap into the expertise of the world’s best power supply engineers. Specialist distributors such as Avnet Abacus bring that expertise to your desk.
