Analyze the definitions and characteristics of digital power

The development of the PC industry has a history. CPUs, GPUs, motherboards, etc. are constantly being updated, and recently, hard disk storage has also begun to rise to the frenzy of solid state drives. On the other hand, power supply has not developed for several years. In fact, otherwise, digital control technology has developed rapidly. The digital system has the advantages of short design period, flexible and changeable, easy to realize modular management, and can eliminate the instability and electromagnetic interference caused by discrete components in the switching power supply. Therefore, the application of digital power supplies in high-precision power supplies is becoming more and more extensive, becoming an important direction for the development of modern power supply technology.

Currently, there are multiple definitions of digital power.

Definition 1: Switching power supply controlled by digital interface (it emphasizes the communication function of digital power supply).

Definition 2: Switching power supply with digital control function (it emphasizes the numerical control function of digital power supply).

Definition 3: Switching power supply with digital monitoring function (it emphasizes the monitoring function of digital power on temperature and other parameters).

Definition 4: Power products with digital signal processors (DSPs) or microcontrollers (MCUs) as the core, digital power drivers, PWM controllers, etc. as control objects, which can realize control, management and monitoring functions It changes its external characteristics by setting the internal parameters of the switching power supply, and adds power management on the basis of power control. The so-called power management refers to the effective distribution of power to different components of the system to minimize losses. Digital power management (such as power sequencing) must all use digital technology.

The digital power supply also includes the following features:

1. Intelligent control

It is an intelligent switching power supply system composed of a digital signal processor (DSP) or a microcontroller (MCU) as the core, and a digital power driver and a PWM controller as control objects. The traditional switching power supply controlled by a microcontroller is generally just to control the power supply to be turned on and off, not a real digital power supply.

2. Optimization of combination of digital and analog components

The integrated digital power (Fusion Digital Power) technology is used to realize the optimal combination of analog components and digital components in the switching power supply. For example, the analog component MOSFET driver used in the power stage can be easily connected to the digital power controller and implement various protection and bias power management, and the PWM controller also belongs to the numerical control analog chip.

3. High integration

Realized the power system on chip integration (Power System on Chip), a large number of discrete components are integrated into a chip or a group of chips.