Renesas Electronics introduces the second generation of multiphase digital controllers and intelligent power level unit modules

Renesas Electronics announced the launch of 15 new second-generation multiphase digital controllers and six SPS that support load currents from 10A to more than 1000A for advanced cpus, FPgas, Gpus and artificial intelligence (AI) ASics for iot infrastructure systems. The ISL6822x, ISL6823x, RAA2282xx multiphase digital controllers and ISL993xx, RAA2213xx SPS extend Renesas' industry-leading digital multiphase platform to 41 devices. These solutions go beyond the rapidly growing power density of data center servers, storage, optical transport, routers, switches, and devices in computing applications and 5G wireless infrastructure.

Andrew Cowell, vice president of Renesas' Mobile, Infrastructure and iot Power Business group, said: "Renesas offers customers the industry's broad range of digital multiphase products and is the only provider of 20-phase controllers for 1000A+ ultra-high current Gpus and AI ASics. Customers appreciate the current control architecture of our proprietary multiphase digital control platform, which enables ultra-fast transient response, smaller output capacitance and lower system costs. In addition, the polyphase digital controller significantly reduces time to market by enabling weld-free commissioning of any application using Renesas PowerNavigator™ software, a first in the field of polyphase digital controllers."

ISL6822x, ISL6823x and RAA2282xx multiphase digital controllers

The second generation of multiphase digital controllers offers greater scalability and flexibility without phase multipliers to suit any system requirements. From phase 2 to phase 20, it is easy to find a controller configured for a variety of applications based on the requirements of the output current. In addition, separate set points can be set for increasing/decreasing phase to maximize efficiency across the load range. On-chip non-volatile memory for each controller allows the entire configuration to be saved to the chip without the need to set up and adjust discrete components. Black boxes capture fault events for faster diagnosis and debugging.

The controller's high-performance digital engine uses a patented current control architecture to track each phase current with zero latency. This allows the device to respond to any load transients with precise current and voltage positioning, reducing the capacitance value by 30% compared to competing solutions. Current control technology also makes it possible to develop highly reliable systems using all-ceramic capacitors.

With the full digital control of the power supply, the entire system can be monitored and controlled by connecting to the system manager via the PMBus and AVSBus interfaces. The AVSBus interface allows connection to any general-purpose ASIC or processor to monitor and adjust voltage, adjust power to load requirements, and improve energy efficiency. The PMBus interface provides comprehensive monitoring of I/O voltage and current, temperature, and fault reporting. Combining a multiphase digital controller with a variety of SPS allows each individual phase to accurately monitor its current.

ISL993xx and RAA2213xx SPS

The second generation SPS offers maximum continuous currents from 20A to 90A and integrates drivers and Fets in a compact package for space-constrained designs. The combination of its high integration and electrical fluometric capabilities can save more than 30% of board space compared to traditional power solutions, which typically employ separate drives and discrete FETs. SPS devices use smart drivers instead of the common drivers found in DrMOS devices. The improvement of the SPS driver is that it can detect current information by detecting the voltage of the FET device.

SPS also simplifies power supply design by integrating high-precision electrical fluometry and reporting without complex temperature and inductance DC impedance DCR compensation. The SPS's current reporting accuracy is 2% across line, load and temperature ranges. This is a significant improvement over the lack of temperature compensation, inductance DCR error and load time constant error compensation.

PowerNavigator software with GUI

PowerNavigator software is the first configuration debugging software for polyphase digital controllers that provides flexibility, configurability, and powerful debugging tools in a single powerful graphical user interface (GUI). Power designers can easily configure the controller and configuration parameters to adjust the stability of the system, can also use the black box to quickly locate the fault point, and the integrated digital oscilloscope can be simple debugging.