The market size for secondary power modules (traditional DC-DCS) will grow from $200 million in 2020 to $1 billion in 2024.

HONG KONG, CHINA, December 26, 2022/ EINPresswire.com / -- In most industries, modularity has been widely recognized by the market because of its convenient use, reasonable price, performance optimization, and other characteristics, and so is the power industry. Since the brick power supply of the industrial era, modular power supplies have been popular because of their standardization and easy maintenance.

With the progress of semiconductor technology, the chip package style of power modules has become common, and gain mindshare in the market. According to JAK Electronics, the market size for secondary power modules (traditional DC-DCS) will grow from $200 million in 2020 to $1 billion in 2024. The most sources of demand growth will include 5G communication infrastructure, AI data centers, computing centers, and other large-scale IT facilities.

Several major power chip manufacturers are paying attention to the power module in this emerging market. MPS, which we’ll be looking at today, is one of them.

1. Why use power modules?

Roy Tu, Power module product line Manager for MPS, said that MPS developed power modules to provide customers with easier use and more reliable products. They can reduce the customer hardware development cycle through a modular approach and the waste of R&D resources caused by repeated iterations in PCB design.

Roy used the real customer development cycle as an example. In traditional discrete power supply design, the calculation and selection process of chips and passive components takes 2-12 weeks, and then the schematic, layout design, debugging and verification of back board take 1-3 weeks. And out-of-the-box power modules can reduce development time by up to 70%, from 18 weeks to 5 weeks.

In addition, compared with the discrete solution, the power module has the advantages of small size and high heat dissipation. For example, in the power module of MPS, a 3D stacking method is adopted to package the inductor and IC, which can reduce the tiling area and does not save the PCB plate area. In addition, IC can also dissipate heat through inductance, thus reducing temperature rise and improving system performance and efficiency.

Third, the power module has better EMI performance, which can optimize pin layout and power transmission path for customer applications.

2. Future challenges of power modules

According to JAK Electronics, the power module has many advantages but also we face some challenges in future development.

First, we should further reduce the size and increase the power density. For example, some OAM units, whose processor power has reached the 600W specification, will exceed 1kW or even 2kW in the future. At the same time, it is necessary to maintain high conversion efficiency and small size under high power.

Second, there is the challenge of heat dissipation. For example, power modules in 5G infrastructure must work in harsh outdoor environments with no fan heat dissipation and heavy loads.

Third, more power channels. As the number of onboard components increases, the required voltage rails become more complex, and more stringent switching sequences are required, as well as more stringent EMI.

Fourth, Roy also mentioned the need for a more universal power supply module, which not only can take into account different voltage rails and all kinds of output power, but also does not increase the cost of redundancy due to flexibility.

3. The MPS ’response

To meet the rapidly growing demand for power modules, MPS has introduced more than 100 kinds of power modules with different characteristics. By matching different innovative characteristics, MPS can meet the personalized requirements of power modules.

MPS dual output power modules MPM54522 and 54322 have input voltages ranging from 2.85V to 16V and output voltages ranging from 0.4V to 3.8V. They support parallel multiplex output and automatic interleaving of two phases to reduce ripple. The product supports precision control of remote sampling, fast load response, and flexible configuration of digital interface and mode selection.

This flexible working mode makes it very suitable for FPGA, ASIC power supply, and applications including telecommunications infrastructure, accelerator cards, optical modules, automation, and other fields.

MPM54524 is the smallest package module with a 20A load in the industry, with a size of only 8mmx8mmx2.9mm. The reason for its high power density is the innovative packaging method of MPS. The wafer is embedded in the substrate, and the inductor is attached to the surface of the substrate. Heat transfer is conducted between the inductor and the IC through glass fibers and thermal colloids.

The other MPM82504E has metal in the package, which is better at conducting heat than plastic filling.

Roy also mentioned power management in the optical module. The optical module is very sensitive to power supply noise, so the power supply to the optical module unit needs to be divided into several power supplies to the receiving end, the transmitting end, and the internal logic control circuit to improve noise suppression through isolation. However, in the actual design, the size and high-frequency wiring of optical modules compress the wiring space of the power supply, so many times optical module suppliers can only sacrifice size and cost, or sacrifice performance. MPS introduces the MPM54313 power module with an intelligent load distribution function. It has three output step-down power modules, each with output current 3A and an independent power supply, which can meet the requirements of optical modules.

MPS has introduced several innovative technologies for EMI mitigation, including a 3D layout to reduce the effect of copper-covered antennas; a Multi-channel integrated design can realize real-time electromagnetic interference compensation inside the power supply. The design of the substrate is to optimize the magnetic field distribution and constrain the electromagnetic radiation in terms of power balance flow and through-pass flow. Switching frequency regulation and a variety of technologies such as shaking frequency optimize EMI from different angles. The MPM3596 is such a power module that meets Class-5 radiation standards.

JAK Electronics
JAK Electronics
+852 9140 9162
it@jakelectronics.com