What is power management and when is it needed?
Power Management (PM) refers to a complete ecosystem around the generation, conversion, control and usage of power in an electrical system. Today, PM is needed in all electronic devices, including PMP/MP3 players, CD and minidisk players and recorders, AAC/WMA/multi-format players and recorders, PDAs, mobile phones and smart phones, digital still cameras/video cameras, mobile GPS and DTV receivers, 802.11 and WiMAX receivers, audio and video STBs, and the list goes on.
In microelectronics, PM is a set of solutions integrated in a subsystem that is responsible for highly efficient conversion of voltage to useful levels, while also providing supervisory and control functions to and from the rest of the system. The subsystem is typically used to minimize power consumption, maximize system performance, minimize heat generation, or optimize some other parameter. A high level of optimization is achieved through the advanced programmability of PM solutions from MIPS Technologies.
For mobile or portable applications, PM is generally associated with battery management, voltage conversion from battery level to levels useful for ICs and peripherals, power control to generate power-up/down sequences, supervision and monitoring of the power supply to optimize performance and battery autonomy, and generation of clocks and references for a wide range of applications.
A wide set of power management IP blocks are required to build PM solutions, including DCDC converters and regulators (both switched and linear), charge-pumps, battery and back-up battery chargers, voltage monitors such as power-on reset, brown out detectors, under- and over-voltage detectors, clock and reference generators, LED drivers, level converters and temperature sensors.
How will the power management market develop, and what are the key drivers?
The power management segment has the highest growth rate in the analog/mixed signal market, and this trend is on the rise. PM is still primarily a non-integrated function, so there is great potential for new and differentiated solutions, as well as new players in this area as the market develops.
Unprecedented demand for mobile and portable applications is pushing customer differentiation. This is a major driver for PM development in terms of power efficiency and performance, functionality and flexibility, miniaturization and cost.
Price reduction and miniaturization are pushing increasing levels of integration and reducing the number of external parts on the PCB as well as the bill of materials, board space, logistics costs, stock and supplier dependence. The cost of PM in a system represents a significant portion of total cost, so as this becomes unbearable, system integrators must find alternative solutions.
Although standard parts and ASSP solutions today show high power efficiency and performance, they are lacking in other key areas. In the past, power efficiency was highly dependent on the efficiency and performance of the power management unit (PMU) itself, whereas today it is equally dependent on how the SoC (or SiP) can control the power that is made available to it in order to optimize power consumption versus processing power in all modes of operation. This means SoCs and SiPs must have full control of the PM subsystem to be able to generate and control multiple power domains both statically and dynamically.
Why should developers look to third party IP for power management?
System integrators are facing challenges in PM requirements unlike ever before. The complexity and performance levels of PM subsystems require solutions far from trivial with levels of knowledge, investment and development time well beyond what is normally acceptable in product development cycles today. By leveraging third party IP and expert integration services, developers can get the right PM solution for their needs with low risk and minimal cost.
Customers who have experience in power management who are capable of specifying and verifying their PM subsystems sometimes license individual IP blocks and assemble them in-house. This process may provide them some sense of freedom and system security. However this is normally more of a burden than an asset. Power management is highly specialized and it brings no value to customers in doing it themselves. We can develop power management solutions according to customer requests and definition. By looking to a third party IP provider, customers can focus on their major added value—their system.
Why should customers choose MIPS' power management IP solutions?
We work closely with customers to identify their standard and unique requirements and challenges, maximizing both IP reuse and differentiation. We deliver detailed HDL models, enabling customers to simulate the PM subsystem in their system well in advance of the physical integration of the IP in their SoC. These subsystems give customers great flexibility and full control over functionality along with the ability to define, verify and even modify the PM subsystem without the burden of the detailed implementation.
MIPS Technologies’ PM expertise removes the burden from our customers, since we deal with the challenges and provide seamless “plug-&-play” solutions in an SoC or SiP. This allows customer design teams to concentrate on digital, firmware and system design. With the high level of programmability in MIPS Technologies’ IP blocks, we avoid expensive, overly customized solutions, reducing risk and time-to-market. Uniqueness and differentiation can be achieved in the way individual blocks are programmed and assembled to interact with each other, rather than through over-configuration of individual IP blocks.
Some designers are opting to integrate power management into a system-in-package (SiP) rather than an SoC. Depending on the size of the power management system to be integrated and the attributes of the end product, this can be a good intermediate step between a standalone power management IC and full SoC integration. An experienced third party IP provider can help determine the best solution for the particular application.
What types of power management IP does MIPS Technologies offer?
MIPS Technologies has more than eight years’ experience in PM with over 100 man-years of experience and more than 100 million ICs in production leveraging IP from our portfolio. Power management IP licensing has more than doubled in the past two years and most of our customers return for repeat business. These are a few indicators of the success rate, level of service, and maturity of our power management IP solutions.
We focus on low voltage applications (5.5V and below), extremely compact IP (e.g. 0.45mm2 100mA step-down DCDC, 4.2V input without 5V devices [CI2512tl]; 0.135mm2 100mA LDO, from 1.6V-3.6V to an output 1.0V-2.8V with 150mV drop-out [CI2483tn]), with extremely low power consumption (e.g. Iq=50uA for a 250mA step-down DCDC in 65nm [CI2561tn]; Iq=30uA, 100mA LDO from 3.3V to an output 1.0V-2.8V [CI2424tm]).
Today, MIPS Technologies has the broadest portfolio of power management IP in a wide range of geometries, including 65nm and 40nm, silicon proven in technologies down to 90nm (e.g. CI2512tm, CI2424tm, CI2480tm, CI2719tm, CI1823tm, CI11418tm), including DCDC converters and switch controllers, charge pumps, linear regulators, battery and back-up battery chargers, voltage monitors such as POR (power-on-reset) over- and under-voltage detectors, temperature monitors and digitizers, oscillators and reference circuits. MIPS’ power management IP solutions are available in all major foundries (here). Our scalable approach allows easy porting, reducing risk and time to market.
