Programmable Fabric Creates Full-function Analog Power Components
The AnDAPT Adaptive Multi-Rail Power (AmP™) platform delivers the industry’s first, on-demand power management solution for a wide range of applications. AmP platforms integrate µAnalog elements, each with a digital wrapper, embedded on an interconnect fabric.
On-Demand Power Management
The AnDAPT Adaptive Multi-Rail Power (AmP™) platform delivers the industry’s first, on-demand power management solution for a wide range of applications. AmP platforms integrate µAnalog elements, each with a digital wrapper, embedded on an interconnect fabric.
Customers can now build their own power management monolithic ICs on demand, in a simple three step process. First, select the appropriate size AmP platform, second, on the cloud-based WebAmP tool, drag and drop proven software (IP) based power components suitable for their application and third, compile to generate and download the personalization bit-stream to their selected platform for a custom PMIC.
Unique Technology – A New Genre
The AnDAPT AmP platform is engineered with ground-breaking, patented technology where digitally wrapped µAnalog elements are interconnected on programmable fabric to create full function analog power components such as voltage regulators, load switches, controllers, sequencers etc. The interconnect fabric eliminates issues with requirements for different interface voltages, currents, impedance, noise, isolation, etc.
While µAnalog elements are basic analog building elements, they do however locally incorporate support analog capabilities such as current sensing, current sharing, slope compensation for MOSFETs, analog signal addition-subtraction for comparators etc., to build power components in mostly analog domain, leveraging decades of expertise built by analog power engineers for best performance, efficiency and figures of merit.
When combined with flexible interconnect fabric and logic, the µAnalog elements build a variety of power components including point-of-load (POL) regulators, created on-demand. This resulting technology is a unique new genre of analog where interconnectivity between analog elements can be defined by simple connectivity or verilog constructs. In the future, AnDAPT will offer platforms for a broad spectrum of both power and non-power analog applications.
Fig1: µAnalog with digital wrappers on interconnect fabric
µAnalog Economy for High Volume
The AmP platform is built on 110nm standard BCD technology with eight layers of metal. This is a unique leading edge power technology node as it, for the first time delivers the best figures of merit/RDSON for DMOS, combined with smallest shrink of standard CMOS logic.
AmP platform die size is predominantly (>90%) µAnalog elements and is comparable to die area of analog functions on a catalog POL or custom PMIC. The interconnect fabric over-layed on top, does not consume die area, although does require higher number of metal layers with slightly higher wafer cost. Small additional die (<10%) is used for digital programmable logic.
This cost is offset by amortizing package and telemetry interface costs, over multiple rails making overall device costs lower than catalog devices, where frequently half the cost is package alone. Customers no longer have to inventory a large set of catalog POLs devices, lowering their inventory capex/opex. Combined with board area, inventory and power savings, AmP platforms are cost competitive for high volume production and not a mere prototype tool.
Additional metal layers are also effectively utilized even on the analog areas such as MOSFETs to help reduce the RDSON for best efficiencies. These metal layers also help with flip-chip versions of packages for even lower RDSON.
Analog Proficiency with Digital Flexibility
This technology delivers analog proficiency, expertise and experience along with digital flexibility for dissimilar rail integration, telemetry and even related digital logic integration.
- Analog Proficiency
- Low bias current, high efficiency
- Analog switching speeds for high efficiency
- Sophisticated Single/Multi-phase POLs
- Loss-less current sense for current mode/share
- Digital Flexibility
- Select, Integrate dissimilar power components
- Optimize, tune for application requirement
- Telemetry-monitor/throttle to lower power
AmP platforms are flexible, highly integrated, power efficient, cost effective and deliver superior figures of merit. Depending µAnalog connectivity, users construct power components, specific to their application needs. Also by seamlessly combining analog power rails with flexible, digital control and telemetry, an AmP device affordably integrates multiple, heterogeneous power rails with different regulator topologies and regulation methods.
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Fig 2: AmP Unique Technology – µAnalog Elements (click here to zoom)
AmP Power Components
AnDAPT offers a broad selection of software based proven Power Components for the AmP family, with competitive figures of merit that replace traditional catalog parts/POLs. Power components of various topologies, range from buck, boost, buck-boost, battery chargers, load switches, LDOs to gate drivers, controllers, sequencers and supervisors. Single and multi-phase regulators and controller topologies are also offered. These come complete with a selection of control loop, compensation, control & telemetry choices.
Fig. 3: Adaptive Multi-Rail Power Platform – AmP
AmP Platform Architecture
The AmP architecture includes three functional groups.
- Power Blocks to build a variety of integrated MOSFET regulator topologies.
- Senser Blocks to monitor current, voltage, and temp. for regulation, telemetry and protection.
- Digital and Analog Fabric for sensing, control loop, telemetry and sequencing.
Power Blocks
Each Power Block includes a Scalable Integrated MOSFET (SIM) element. The MOSFETs are scalable and segmented with built-in current sense for current-mode or current balancing. Each SIM element supports two fundamental operating modes switched mode or linear mode. Power blocks are externally connected to build a variety of topologies.
- Switching topologies
- Regulators and Controllers
- Buck, Boost, Buck-Boost regulators
- Synchronous or asynchronous
- Single or multi-phase
- Linear/Mixed topologies
- LDOs and Load Switches
- Battery chargers
- LED Drivers
- H-Bridges
Senser Blocks
The Senser Block provides capabilities to measure voltage or current levels. Senser blocks are used for analog signaling for regulation, protection and telemetry. Every Sensor Block includes the following functions.
- Noise-immune voltage references
- Threshold comparators
- Summation amplifiers
- Adaptive error digitizers
Digital Fabric Control and Interface
Each AmP device includes a digital fabric for building control loops, sequencers and interconnectivity for µAnalog elements and power components. The AmP platform’s digital fabric includes functions to monitor and control the analog currents, voltages etc..
- Compensator RAMs for PID Arithmetic
- Precision Modulation Timers
- Analog and digital general-purpose I/O (GPIO)
- On-chip clocks/networks-selectable frequency/phases
Looking Ahead
The implications for the AmP technology are far reaching, and extend well beyond the initial target market: power management for enterprise servers, networking, wireless and PC/Clients.
The platform is a Senser-PID Controller-Actuator appliance with broad applicability beyond power. Using the same basic technology, engineers could conceivably create, almost instantaneously, any type of analog solution—even solutions that do not yet exist.
On a very concrete level, future applications for the technology could include broader on-demand power management, audio amplifiers, RF, stepper motor, senser/actuators for IoT, brushless direct current motor drivers for drones and industrial devices. But on a higher level, the sky is the limit for the applications of adaptive analog.
