This month’s news highlights a couple of new DC/DC converters with unique efficiency and space-reduction technology, plus a prototype for a powered smart card with a printed display and microcontroller together on a single substrate using a common plastic card manufacturing process.

96 percent efficient wide-range POL converter

Distributed power architectures call for board-mounted modules or bricks performing DC/DC conversion at the point of load. Today, these bricks are often available in a Distributed-power Open Standards Alliance  (DOSA) footprint so that off-the-shelf modules can be selected and used at various spots in the system, providing different output voltages as required.

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One of the newest implementations is the Lineage Power ProLynx family. The APXW005 can supply up to 45 W of output power and up to 5 A current. It accepts 9 V to 36 VDC input and can be programmed to deliver 3 V to 18 VDC output. Ninety-six percent efficiency is measured at 28 V-in, 18 V-out, and comes in part from what Lineage calls “Tunable Loop” technology, which optimizes efficiency for varying demands and significantly reduces external capacitor requirements. This all comes in a module measuring 20.3 mm x 11.4 mm x 8.5 mm, operating in a temperature range of -40 °C to +85 °C.

Lineage Power
www.lineagepower.com
www.embedded-computing.com/p45528

Compact dual DC/DC in tiny footprint

Even smaller DC/DC converters are showing up, fitting spaces where high efficiency and dual-voltage outputs are needed, especially in battery-powered applications for embedded devices. The new AS134x dual step-down DC/DC converters from austriamicrosystems target these types of applications.

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Packaged in a single 12-pin 3 mm x 3 mm Thin Dual Flat No leads (TDFN) format, the AS134x delivers two independent DC/DC outputs. It accepts 2.7 to 5.5 VDC input and delivers two 1.2 to 3.6 VDC outputs programmable in 100 mV increments. Output current supply is 0.5 A to 1.2 A. The supply also features a shutdown mode that decreases its power to less than 1 microamp. Its operating efficiency is up to 95 percent; the two outputs operate 180 degrees out of phase to reduce ripple and filtering requirements; and the temperature range is -40 °C to +85 °C.

austriamicrosystems
www.austriamicrosystems.com
www.embedded-computing.com/p45529

Smarter powered smart cards

Many smart cards contain interesting data that the owner might want to see like stored value, but they have to be placed into some type of reader to display that data. While integrating a conventional LCD into a key fob-type design is possible, it is hard to do in a smart card made to carry in a wallet. Assembling displays into a card using nonstandard processes is also possible but not very producible in volumes needed to make economic sense. Display technology continues to advance and might have a better solution.

NTERA and GSI Technologies have teamed up to produce a 6-digit white display and microcontroller completely integrated on a single substrate solution. In a process called “printegration,” the NanoChromics Display (NCD) is printed onto a hot-laminated card module using processes compatible with standard plastic card production, which could make the economics viable once proven out. The display technology also saves power over a conventional LCD, and adding something like a thin-film battery could complete the solution.

NTERA
www.ntera.com
www.embedded-computing.com/p45530
GSI Technologies
www.gsitech.com
www.embedded-computing.com/p45531