Ericsson Power Modules & Power-One Enter Agreement On Digital Power Technology
In a worldwide agreement, Ericsson Power Modules has been granted a license on a patent portfolio for digital power technology (DPT) from Power-One Inc. The non-exclusive license agreement provides Ericsson Power Modules with access to Power-One’s portfolio of DPT patents for incorporation in Power Modules series of 3E digitally controlled point-of-load devices.
Digital power management enables OEM’s and data centres, including websites, to run more efficiently. As the number of point-of-load (POL) on boards continues to increase, and data centers utilize more power from the grid, the need for digital power management solutions intensifies. The use of digital control technology actually reduces cost while increasing performance, leading to the digital power market being one of the fastest growing markets in power management.
"Ericsson Power Modules has been at the forefront of digital technology for many years. Through this collaboration with Power-One we will secure a rapid deployment of our digital board-mounted technology – 3E – in the market place. 3E, standing for Enhanced Performance, Energy Management, and End-user Value, offers new opportunities for board-mounted power solutions and savings in the design, production and operation of systems using distributed power architecture dynamically controlled" said Martin Hägerdal, VP & Head of Ericsson Power Modules.
"By partnering with Ericsson Power Modules, a world leader in power technology for ICT industry, we will expand the use of DPT to board mounted power supplies. These technologies reduce energy consumption and increase the customer’s Return on Investment (ROI)," said Richard Thompson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Power-One. "This license further reflects Power-One’s goal of partnering with global leaders to expand access to analog and digital power management products with the PMBus protocol."
The internal design of Ericsson’s 3E POL regulators uses digital power control techniques, and some of the optional user implementations of these products are able to benefit from the utilization of system level digital power and energy management approaches. While these products can be successfully applied using the same techniques as with conventional fully analog POL regulators, it is beneficial for customer to have access, through a PMBus interface, to critical information such as load condition, temperature, voltage and current delivered, and other parameters, making it possible to monitor the distributed energy down to processor level. The addition of Power-One’s digital power technology patents to the existing and future products will extend possibilities for customers to a broader range of operation and to fully program and monitor single, or an array of digitally controlled POL devices with functions such as sequencing, voltage setting, dynamic commands to shift-load and many others.
