New Industry Products

6A Buck Regulator fits in 12mm x 9mm x 2mm Package

March 20, 2019 by Scott McMahan

At Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC) - Booth #1247, Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. debuted what the company claims to be the world's smallest, most efficient, fully integrated 6A buck regulator. With dimensions of 12mm x 9mm x 2mm (L × W × H), the module has a footprint that is 25% less than the nearest competitive solution and features a 30% lower profile.

Target markets and applications include telecoms, base stations, routers, networking switches, micro-servers, SSDs, PCIE add-in cards, and high-performance mobile computing platforms.

The company notes that typically, power conversion can take up 10% to 20% of circuit board space and represents about 10% to 20% of system power loss. Power conversion usually requires bulky components such as inductors that demand significant circuit board space, which may dictate the thinness or overall height of a platform.

In April 2017, Murata's semiconductor division, pSemi, acquired MIT spin-out Arctic Sand, a company that has developed a unique two-stage power conversion architecture that enables much higher efficiencies and dramatically reduces the size of passive components required (See image above with the buck regulator in the middle mounted on the Arctic Sand power conversion architecture).

This power conversion architecture enables a significant reduction in solution size.  Through the application of this technology and with the aid of Murata's packaging and module production capabilities, Murata says it can manufacture highly integrated and efficient solutions.

"Murata is bringing to market a new family of highly integrated dc-dc converters that set new standards for efficiency, size and performance," says Jim Cable, CEO at pSemi and global R&D director at Murata. "This development is a collaborative effort fueled by Murata's long-standing and acquired strengths in power conversion architecture, power module development, advanced 3D integrated packaging and passive components."

Buck Regulator Product Features

With an input voltage range of 5.5V-14.4V and a programmable output of 0.7V to 1.8V at up to 6A, the company designed the MYMGA1R86RELC2RA dc-dc converter for 2-cell, 3-cell, and 12V point-of-load applications where high efficiency, low profile and small solution size are essential.

All passive components, including bulk output capacitance are integrated to meet demanding transient load requirements. As such, no additional external components are needed for most applications.

Moreover, this buck regulator does not require any additional external components to meet stringent transient requirements. Therefore, the typical solution footprint is approximately 50% of any alternative product, Murata says.

Also, peak efficiency exceeds 90% for 12V input to 1.8V output, which is more than 5% higher than competing products.

Other benefits resulting from this unique power architecture include about a 5X reduction in input ripple, lower conducted and radiated EMI emissions, and a wide temperature range of -40°C to +105°C with derating.

The product will be sampling in August and mass production is scheduled for later in 2019. Sample pricing will be $10.