Semtech enters digital power market

The SC493 is designed to address increasingly complex power management requirements by enabling users to digitally configure and interrogate the status of the controller via an I²C bus. The device is the latest addition to the company's EcoSpeed converter platform, and is said to combine the flexibility and feature set of a digital converter with the transient response and efficiency of Semtech's patented adaptive on-time (AOT) controller architecture. "Most controllers today are analogue, which can achieve high performance but lack flexibility," said Alan Burchfield, senior product marketing manager for Semtech's Power Management Group. "Some controllers now provide digital flexibility, but it is typically achieved via totally digital topologies. This requires the addition of high speed data converters and power hungry dsps. Semtech's approach takes our best-in-class, adaptive on-time EcoSpeed controller core, and wraps it with a digital interface to provide the benefits of an efficient, high performance analogue core and the flexibility of digital control." The I²C interface of the SC493 can be used to fine adjust the output voltage and implement margining, as well as to program device functions including output enable/disable, switching frequency, power-on delay time, soft-start time, power-save mode and ultrasonic power-save frequency. The I²C status register bits can be used for diagnostics, including current limit, over temperature, over/under voltage, brown out and power good. The SC493 is available now in production quantities and evaluation boards are also available.