What is a power IC?

The power IC refers to the pulse width control integration of the switching power supply, and the power supply relies on it to adjust the stability of the output voltage and current.

Power IC features

There are many types of power ICs, and the common features are :

Low operating voltage : The general operating voltage is 3.0 to 3.6V. Some have lower operating voltages, such as 2.0, 2.5, 2.7V, etc.; there are also some operating voltages of 5V, and a few 12V or 28V special-purpose voltage sources.

The working current is small : from a few milliamperes to a few amps, but since most embedded electronic products have an operating current of less than 300 mA, the power ICs of 30 to 300 mA account for a large proportion of the variety and quantity.

Small package size : In recent years, portable products have been developed using chip devices, and power ICs are no exception, mainly in SO package, SOT-23 package, μMAX package and SC-70 with the smallest package size and the latest SMD package. Make the power supply take up less and less space.

The emerging status of the 'power management IC industry'

Perfect protection measures : The new power IC has perfect protection measures, including: output overcurrent limit, overheat protection, short circuit protection and battery polarity reverse protection, making the power supply work safe and reliable, not easy to damage.

Low power consumption and power-off function: The quiescent current of the new power IC is small, usually from tens of μA to several hundred μA. Individual micropower linear regulators have a quiescent current of only 1.1μA. In addition, many power ICs have the function of turning off the power control terminal (controlled by level), and the IC itself consumes about 1μA when the power is turned off. Since it can make some circuits inoperative, it can save a lot of power. For example, on a wireless communication device, the receiving circuit can be turned off in the transmitting state; the display circuit or the like can be turned off when no signal is received.

There are power working status signal output: Many portable electronic products have a single-chip microcomputer. When the power supply drops by a certain percentage due to overheating or low battery voltage, the power supply IC has a power supply working state signal that is sent to the single-chip microcomputer to reset the single-chip microcomputer. This signal can also be used to indicate the power supply status (the LED is displayed when the battery is low voltage).

The output voltage accuracy is high: the general output voltage accuracy is between ±2% and 4%, and many new power supply ICs have an accuracy of ±0.5 to ±1%; and the output voltage temperature coefficient is small, generally ±0.3 to ± 0.5mV/°C, while some can reach levels of ±0.1mV/°C. The linear adjustment rate is generally 0.05% to 0.1%/V, and some can reach 0.01%/V; the load regulation rate is generally 0.3 to 0.5%/mA, and some can reach 0.01%/mA.

New combined power IC: The boost DC/DC converter has high efficiency but large ripple and noise voltage. The low dropout linear regulator has low efficiency but minimum noise. The combination of the two is equivalent to a dual output power IC. Solve the problem of efficiency and noise. For example, the digital circuit section uses a boost DC/DC converter power supply and the noise sensitive circuitry uses an LDO power supply. This power IC has MAX710/711, MAX1705/1706 and so on. Another example is a charge pump + LDO, an output regulated charge pump power IC, such as the MAX868, which outputs a stable regulated voltage from 0 to -2 VIN and provides 30 mA of current; the MAX1673 regulated charge pump power IC The output has the same negative voltage as VIN and the output current can reach 125mA.

Application field

With the development of electronic technology, especially the current popular portable products and the promotion of energy saving and environmental protection, power ICs play an increasingly important role. A few years ago, power ICs were only integrated regulators and DC/DC converters, but now power ICs cover a lot of things, including DC/DC, LDO (low dropout linear regulator), battery charge and discharge management, PWM control. , Reset, PFC (power factor correction), energy saving control, power MOSEFT, etc.

The current trend of power ICs is not limited to a single function, but the various functions are integrated together, so power ICs are now more commonly referred to as power management ICs, or power management units (PMUs).

The emerging status of the 'power management IC industry'

Power Management IC Industry Status

The power management IC industry should be an emerging industry. In recent years, the company with the highest growth rate has reached 70%, and the overall compound growth rate has reached 30%.

Power IC manufacturers are not monopolized by several major manufacturers in Europe and the United States. For example, Intel monopolizes 80% of the CPU market. The manufacturers of power ICs are more and more dispersed. The key is to find their own position. There are 11 power management IC manufacturers in Taiwan, and they are important industrial bases for power management ICs. Taiwanese manufacturers have a large scale of production and complete products, with an annual output value of nearly 100 million US dollars.

Multilayer PCB

Storm Circuit has been producing Multilayer PCBs for over 10years. Over the years, we have seen all types of multilayer constructions from various industries, answered all types of multilayer questions, and solved all types of problems with multilayer PCBs.

Multilayer PCB is a circuit board with two or more layers. The material unlike Double-Sided PCBs with only two conductive layers all multilayer PCBs is that it must have at least three layers of conductive material, and the PCB boards are buried in the center of the material.

Benefits of Multilayer PCBs (compared to single or double-sided PCBs)

Higher assembly density
Smaller size (considerable savings on space)
Increased flexibility
Easier incorporation controlled impedance features.
EMI shielding through careful placement of power and ground layers.
Reduces the need for interconnection wiring harnesses (reduces overall weight

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