Flex Power module introduces 1/4 brick high power 1300W DC-DC converter

     Flex Power Module introduces a non-isolated digital IBC (Intermediate Bus Converter) DC-DC converter, the BMR490, with an output power of 1300W and a 1/4 brick form factor. The new converters combine extremely high power density and excellent thermal performance in a price-sensitive design, making them ideal for demanding applications such as data centers.

     During the development of the converter, the Flex power module has registered more than 10 patents, which has led to significant improvements in the area of thermal management within the converter. In order to improve heat dissipation performance, manufacturing has also been improved by screwing the baseplate directly onto the converter's PCB. Together, these measures increase the available power of the BMR490 by more than 20% compared to a similarly rated module at extended temperatures.

     The BMR490 provides a digital interface that is fully compliant with PMBus 1.3, which makes it easy to reconfigure and thus fine-tune functions to respond to application-specific requirements. The converter can be configured using the Flex Power Designer software - which provides detailed simulations including thermal modeling, thus helping to reduce development time and minimize the risk of defects in the design of the power system.

     Olle Hellgren, director of power module product management and business development at Flex, said: "The demand for power for server and data center applications is always increasing. The new BMR490 provides an efficient solution with an extremely high power density, making it ideal for this use case."

     The BMR490 offers a typical high efficiency of 97.3% at 53V input and half load. This achievement was made possible in part by hybrid ratio regulation (HRR) technology, which enables the converter to seamlessly switch between traditional fixed ratio or fixed output conversion modes, depending on the input voltage and output requirements. HRR provides higher efficiency and power output under the most common operating conditions, supports a wide input voltage range, and provides excellent transient response.

     The new converters target a variety of high-power applications, including data centers, high-speed cloud, high-performance computing, mass storage, and high-speed optical networks. The input voltage range is 40V to 60V, the output voltage is 12V, and the output current is up to 145A. Input-output is a non-isolated type. The BMR490 comes in the industry standard ultra-thin quarter-brick package, measuring 58.4×36.8×14.5mm (2.30×1.45×0.57in).