TI Presents New TPS2345 Hot-Swap Power Controller

Texas Instruments Inc. (TI, Dallas, TX) announced its new TPS2345 integrated, hot-swap, power controller, which is claimed to be the first in the market to comply with the high-availability model of the CompactPCI hot-swap specification, PICMG2.1, for a PCI bus. The new device is suitable for next-generation PCI products in the telecom, Internet, instrumentation and networking markets.

The TPS2345 enables fast and flexible PCI development, reducing design time and time to market by 50 percent. Using a minimum of external components, the TPS2345 enables designers to easily modify the PCI power to the application. The inrush current profile can be tailored to meet the application needs through closed-loop control of the current ramp rate and maximum current value during plug-in start-up sequencing. The role of the TPS2345 hot-swap power controller is to power-up inserted PCI boards, detect load failures in PCI plug-in boards, remove power from failed boards, protect the surrounding system from damage by isolating the failed board, and communicate power events to the processor electronically, all without having to shut down the system.

The TPS2345 will sequentially ramp-up and ramp-off the PCI supplies. As each PCI supply is ramped in sequence, its power is validated to ensure it is within the established tolerances. A timer, also derived from the current ramp capacitor, sets a time limit for ramping each channel, protecting systems from start-up into faulted loads. In addition, the TPS2345 has a low 20mV sense voltage limit, which allows the use of low-value sense resistors, minimizing insertion loss.

The TPS2345 hot-swap power controller comes in a 24-pin TSSOP package, and is available now. An evaluation module is also available. Suggested resale pricing for the TPS2345 is $4.50 in quantities of 1,000.