Intersil announced on March 16 its first 50A fully encapsulated digital DC/DC PMBus power module. The ISL8272M is a complete step-down power supply that delivers up to 50A of output current from 12V or 5V input power rails with up to 96% conversion efficiency with 1% output voltage accuracy. Four modules can be combined to support up to 200A rails. It provides point-of load conversions for FPGAs, ASICs, processors and memory in power-dense telecom and datacom applications. The device is also well suited for high-end instrumentation, industrial and medical equipment. The ISL8272M is available in a compact 18mm x 23mm x 7.5mm HDA package, and priced at $50.75 USD in 1k quantities. Two evaluation boards are available to speed time-to-market: the ISL8272MEVAL1Z 50A digital module evaluation board priced at $83, and the ISL8272MEVAL2Z 150A evaluation board priced at $150 (www.intersil.com/products/isl8272m).

The ISL8272M’s digital control technology provides sequencing and system monitoring through the PMBus interface. Intersil's ChargeMode control architecture enables compensation-free design that keeps the device stable regardless of output capacitor changes due to temperature, variation or aging. Some voltage-mode control power modules often require designers to perform complex calculations, stability analysis and build a compensation network using 4-5 discrete components. The ISL8272M’s ChargeMode control loop also provides a single clock cycle fast transient response to output current load steps common in FPGAs and DSPs processing power bursts. Intersil's PowerNavigator™ GUI software simplifies the ISL8272M’s setup and configuration, including all device parameters and full telemetry. The tool makes it easy to change features and functions of a digital power supply design without writing a single line of code (www.intersil.com/powernavigator). The ISL8272M will be demonstrated in Intersil’s booth #500 at the Applied Power Electronics Conference and Expo (www.APEC-conf.org) in Charlotte, N.C., March 15-18.