Demand Increases for Non-Isolated Point of Load DC/DC Converters
7/28/2004 - The most compelling changes in the switching power supply industry are occurring at the distributed power level. The proliferation of different voltages at higher current levels has changed the way distributed bus architectures (DBA) are designed.
Traditionally, bus architectures for distributing power use a central power source that converts the incoming line voltage separately to each required regulated DC output, then distributes the regulated voltages individually to every point of use within the equipment.
Now however, designers are moving toward distributed bus architectures (DBAs). A distributed bus architecture is one where voltage is generated from a front-end DC bus then converted into the required voltage at the point of use; this is known as point of load (POL) regulation.
These non-isolated POL DC/DC converters are small in size and placed close to their load on a board, thus offering several performance enhancements over traditional, isolated DC/DC converters:
- Cost-effectiveness - Non-isolated POL converters have no transformers or electrical isolation, allowing them to be smaller and less expensive.
- Efficiency - Rather than distributing filtered and regulated voltages from a central source, non-isolated converters operate at a higher efficiency than isolated converters by being closer to the point of use.
- Reliability - Non-isolated POL converters lack the components and complexity of isolated converters and have the ability to easily adjust output voltage to accommodate different loads. In addition, when using distributed power architectures, the failure of a DC/DC converter only affects that single module.
Although the concept of implementing true on-board distributed power is not new, it is becoming increasingly common as suppliers embrace the idea and begin their own product rollouts. Due to this trend, Venture Development Corporation has proposed a global market demand analysis for DC/DC Converters, DC/DC Regulators and PWM/PFM Controllers exclusively. Further information about: DC/DC Converters, DC/DC Regulators, and PWM/PFM Controllers: Global Market Demand Analysis.
About VDC
Founded in 1971, VDC is a technology market research and consulting firm that specializes in industrial and commercial electronics, computing, communications, software and power systems markets.
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