New Industry Products

1/16th Bricks for Industrial and Railway Applications

March 27, 2018 by Paul Shepard

Murata launches its latest in a series of encapsulated dc-dc converters designed specifically for industrial, railway, and industrial mobility applications. The 50-Watt IRS-Q48 from Murata Power Solutions provides market-leading efficiency using the latest technology for fixed-frequency switching power supply architectures, in an industry standard 1/16th brick pinout.

With its wide 4:1 input range, the IRS-Q48 supports common bus voltages of 24V, 28V, 37.5V, 48V and 54V commonly found in industrial, industrial mobility and rail electronic systems. The electrical and mechanical design incorporates proprietary technology providing shock and vibration tolerance that meets or exceeds EN 61373:1999 Category 1, Class B, Body Mounted requirements.

IRS outputs may be trimmed while delivering fast settling to current step loads and no adverse effects from higher capacitive loads. Excellent ripple and noise specifications assure compatibility to circuits using CPU’s, ASIC’s, programmable logic and FPGA’s. No minimum load is required. For systems requiring controlled startup/shutdown, an external remote On/Off control may use a switch, transistor or digital logic.

Many self-protection features on the IRS series avoid both converter and external circuit hazards. These include input under-voltage lockout and over-temperature shutdown. The output of these dc-dc converters have current limit using the “hiccup” auto-restart technique and the outputs may be short-circuited indefinitely. Additional features include output overvoltage and reverse conduction elimination.

The synchronous flyback topology yields high efficiency for minimal heat buildup and “no fan” operation. With an efficiency of 91 %, the converters operate cooler and more efficiently.

The IRS-Q48 is available with an option for a standard or a flanged baseplate for various conduction cooling configurations including cold wall mounting. Features include:

  • Baseplate cooling
  • Encapsulated mechanical design
  • On/off logic control
  • Output short circuit & over-voltage protection, along with, input under voltage lock out (UVLO) over temperature protection circuits
  • Basic insulation with 2250Vdc input-to-output isolation and a fully regulated dc output
  • Includes modules with outputs of 3.3-, 5- and 12-Vdc with up to 50W of output power
  • The universal Vin range of 18- to 75-Vdc meets the requirements of EN50155 for nominal input voltages of 37.5-Vdc and 48-Vdc including brown out and transient conditions

Applications are expected to include:

  • Rail systems such as:
    • Mobile communications signaling
    • Lighting
    • Signs
    • Computing
    • Motor drives
    • Control modules
    • Security systems
  • 12V, 24V & 48V battery systems
  • Smart grid systems
  • Intermediate bus
  • Harsh environment applications in networking equipment
  • Wireless networking equipment for mobile computing
  • Test equipment
  • Other rugged applications requiring a regulated 3.3-, 5- or 12-Vdc source