New Industry Products

Digital Power System Manager Enables Conversion Efficiency Monitoring

April 18, 2018 by Paul Shepard

Analog Devices announces the Power by Linear™ LTC2972, a 2-channel power system manager, featuring current, power and energy monitoring of the intermediate bus input to point-of-load (POL) converters. Monitoring circuit board power and energy use is a prerequisite for managing, optimizing and reducing their consumption in order to lower server rack and data center cooling and utility costs.

The LTC2972 relieves the host of burdensome polling and computation by conveniently providing the input energy, reported in joules, and the elapsed time through a PMBus interface. When combined with its digital measurements of POL output voltages, currents, and power, the LTC2972 enables long-term monitoring of a power system’s conversion efficiency.

The LTC2972 adds comprehensive software-based monitoring and control to the power systems of FPGA, ASIC, and DSP boards, accelerating time to market, enhancing system reliability, and optimizing board energy consumption.

Supply output voltages are trimmed, margined, and monitored using a best-in-class 16-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with 0.25% total unadjusted error (TUE), improving board yields and long-term performance. Supply output currents are measured using a sense resistor, inductor DCR, or the IMON output of a power supply.

Supply sequencing, supervision, and EEPROM fault-logging are built in. Faults trigger EEPROM black box recording, simplifying failure analysis while providing insight into future system improvements. Programmable power good, or general-purpose input/output (GPIO), pins are available with each channel.

The LTC2972 connects with other power system managers to coordinate sequencing and fault management of more than two rails. PMBus-compatible commands are used for flexible programming and data readback of the power system.

Configuration is accomplished through the LTpowerPlay® development environment, which supports all Power by Linear power system management (PSM) devices. Once programmed, no software coding is needed for autonomous operation.

Summary of features:

  • Digitally Manage Two Power Supplies
  • Margin or Trim Supplies to Within 0.25% of Target Voltage
  • PMBus Compliant Commands over I²C/SMBus Digital Interface
  • EEPROM with ECC for Configuration & Black Box Fault Logging
  • Supported by LTpowerPlay® GUI
  • Supply Sequencer – Time Based, Cascade, Supports Tracking
  • 16-Bit ADC with 0.25% TUE to Monitor & Obtain Telemetry on:
    • Input Rail: Voltage, Current, Power & Energy
    • Two Supply Outputs: Voltage, Current & Power
    • Device & Two External Temperatures
  • Supervise Against OV/UV Window Thresholds: Input Voltage, Two Supply Voltages, Two External Temperatures
  • Configurable Power Good Output Pins with Programmable Deglitch Delays
  • Coordinate Sequencing & Fault Management across Multiple ADI PSM Devices
  • Operates Autonomously without Additional Software
  • Programmable Watchdog Timer
  • Powered from 3.3V, or 4.5V to 15V
  • –40°C to 105°C Operation
  • 44-Pin 6mm × 7mm QFN Package

Specified over the 0°C to 70°C commercial and −40°C to 105°C industrial temperature ranges, the LTC2972 is offered in a 44-pin 6mm x 7mm QFN package. Pricing starts at $3.99 each in lots of 1,000. Device samples and evaluation circuit boards are available online or from your local Analog Devices sales office.