News Release from: Summit Microelectronics
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 1 October 2003
Active voltage controller takes on six channels
The six-channel SMM605 joins the SMM105 and SMM205 single- and dual-channel devices in the Summit Microelectronics family of precision margining active voltage controllers.
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The six-channel SMM605 joins the SMM105 and SMM205 single- and dual-channel devices in the Summit Microelectronics family of precision margining active voltage controllers. Applications for the device are a wide variety of electronic systems including computing, server, networking, communications and other equipment where highly reliable operation is required. Voltage margining is increasingly being adopted by world-class suppliers: to test their systems during manufacture; to perform later preventive-maintenance testing; and to effectively perform initial prototyping.
Voltage margining is the controlled up and down adjustment of the supply voltages during test to verify the robustness of a board and to weed out weak boards before they become field failures.
Field failures in unmargined systems are a real and costly occurrence; they are of increasing concern as power supply voltage levels decrease with newer technologies.
Summit uses proprietary active control (ADOC - active DC/DC output control) to provide the accuracy required to correctly margin, typically +/-0.1% (guaranteed +/-0.2% worst case).
Inaccurate margining causes an uncertainty in the actual voltage being applied to processors, ASICs, FPGAs and other PCB circuitry.
Other suppliers' devices with +/-5, 10, even as much as 20% inaccuracy result in unacceptable, invalid circuit test.
Such voltage margining is not useful and potentially destructive under such conditions because the actual voltage under margining can vary so widely as to render the test without meaning and actually damage the circuits being tested.
Summit's active control in the SMM105/205/605 is applicable in ongoing operation as well as during margin testing.
This typically allows +/-0.1% accuracy (+/-0.2% guaranteed worst-case) in controlling DC/DC convertors or low-dropout voltage regulators (LDOs) with a trim pin - even for inaccurate DC/DCs and LDOs (as poor as +/-4%).
The payoff to the user is obtaining the accuracy demanded by today's processors, ASICs, FPGAs and other sensitive circuits as their power-supply voltage levels decrease and allowable inaccuracies decrease too - while purchasing less expensive convertors.
The accuracy benefits of Summit's margining active voltage controllers supplement the advantages of flexible programmability and reprogrammability.
The SMM105/205/605 contain nonvolatile permanent storage that can be accessed and altered over a standard I2C serial bus.
In the margining task, margin values can be arbitrarily assigned up or down from 0.35V to the supply rail, and then conveniently changed later.
In ongoing control of converters or LDOs, the voltage setpoint can be altered after the hardware design is finalised.
To speed user product development using the SMM605 and Summit's other programmable products, Summit offers customers the SMX3200 programming system.
This is a complete development system that lets designers easily manipulate the characteristics of their system.
The SMX3200 design kit includes menu-driven Microsoft Windows graphical user interface software to automate programming tasks and also includes the necessary hardware to interface to the parallel port of a laptop or PC.
Once a user completes design and prototyping, the SMX3200 automatically generates a hex data file that can be sent to Summit for review and approval.
Summit then assigns a unique customer identification code to the hex file and programs the customer's production devices prior to final electrical test operations.
This ensures the device will operate properly in the end application.
The design kit software can be downloaded today from Summit's website.
An evaluation card containing the SMM605 marginer, support circuitry including six DC/DC convertor "SIPs", and a port for "plug and play" programming via the SMX3200 dongle interface are available.
Available in volume quantities today, the SMM605 is packaged in a 48-pin TQFP surface-mount package.
Commercial temperature range pricing is $7.75 in 10,000 unit quantities.
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