4 critical aspects to consider for

high-power-density solutions

Presenter: Ashish Khandelwal

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Today’s agenda
• What is power density?
• Why should you care about power density?
• Barriers in improving power density
• How to reduce the size of magnetics
• Cost effective integration
• How you can tackle heat generation and dissipation
• Resources

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What is power density?
Power density is a measure of how much power
can be delivered in a given board space

• A 65 W active clamp flyback converter • A 10 A point-of-load DC/DC converter

• Volume = 65 mm x 28 mm x 25 mm • Total board space: 13.1 mm x 10 mm
• Power density = 1.4 mW/mm3 • Power density = 76 mA/mm2 3
Why should you care about power density?

• Less material → lower cost, less weight

• Less weight → convenience in portable
electronics
• Less weight → fuel savings, extra range
in transportation
• Less area by power supply → add more
features in your product to differentiate

Trend towards miniaturization – smaller the better

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Barriers in improving power density
• Passive components – Inductors and
capacitors can take up considerable
space
• Other discrete components – Power
switches, gate drivers, mode setting
resistors, feedback network
components, EMI filters, current
sensing components, interfacing
circuits, heatsinks
• Switching losses – Turn on/off loss, Size comparison of a 3A, 36V DC-DC converter
gate charge loss, reverse recovery loss switching at (left) 400kHz vs (right) 2MHz
• Thermal performance
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Power density
Achieve more power in smaller space enhancing system functionality at reduced system costs

• Reduced switch losses

• Generate less heat and achieve robust and excellent device switching performance with
advanced low voltage silicon and GaN technologies
• Topology, control & circuit design
• Realize higher efficiency and power density with soft-switching, resonant, stackable and
multilevel converter topologies, advanced gate drivers and high-frequency controllers
• Integration
• Mitigate the impact of parasitics and reduce your system footprint with 2D and 3D integration
technologies using advanced packaging
• Increased thermal performance
• Remove the heat from your package more efficiently with thermally enhanced packages and
advanced leadframe technologies.
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How to reduce the size of magnetics

Reduce magnetics size by switching at higher frequencies by taking

advantage of semiconductor technology with optimized QG*RDS(ON) FOM

100
95
90
Efficiency (%)

85
80
75
70
65
60 TPS62088 -- 4 MHz
55 TPS54319 -- 2MHz
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0.1 0.6 1.1 1.6 2.1 2.6 3.1
Load Current (A)

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Cost effective integration
• Fast and efficient integrated
driver
• Reduces board area and
BOM
• 50% smaller losses
compared to discrete GaN
• Improves performance by
reducing parasitics
• Fully embedded IC inside PCB
ALL passive components (L, CIN,
COUT) are included
• Smallest isolated bias
supply
• Lowest EMI
• Simplifying PCB layout

GaN FET
LMG3410R070
Power modules Isolated bias supply
MicroSiP/MicroSiL™ UCC12050

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How you can tackle heat generation and dissipation
TI’s enhanced thermal PCB and system thermal Enhanced cooling at
packaging technology resistance improvements system level
SS/TRK

COMP
AGND
EN

FB
PGOOD RT/CLK

PVIN PVIN

PVIN PVIN

PGND PGND
PGND PGND
BOOT

SW

SW

SW
SW

• Flexible pin-out • Larger/more layers/thicker PCB • Top/bottom-side cooling

• Large exposed area and • More PCB vias • Thermal interface materials
low parasitic interconnects • Densely package high-power • Gap filler pads
components • Heat pipes, cold plates
• Fans, Jet cooling
http://www.ti.com/design-resources/design-tools-simulation.html 9
Additional resources
• Technical content for power density: www.ti.com/powerdensity
• White paper: Understanding the trade-offs and technologies to increase power
density
• Deeper training series: Understanding the fundamental technologies of power
density
• Technical article: Introduction to the fundamental technologies of power density

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