Making devices pack a more powerful punch

With increased efficiency legislations, cost effective productivity is becoming a growing concern for industrial power management. Power consumption and in particular cooling is an area that is too often overlooked. Reducing consumption or the ability to dissipate heat in different systems can have a significant impact on cost and efficiency. Industries and organisations must consider this very carefully. It's important to look at smaller components with more integrated functionality and we're starting to see power management amalgamating multiple functions into a single integrated circuit, rather than previous boards that would host as many as seven integrated circuits, each doing the same function. One option is to deploy micro PMUs that integrate many of the DC to DC converters such as linear regulators but also switching regulators into one package to reduce cost, whilst also reducing solution size. This isn't a new concept. The mobile handset business, 15-20 years ago, was seeing the need for more integrated devices because of space constraints and cost issues. They did an excellent job in generating and designing integrated circuits that have a lot of functions. Historically industry hasn't had to focus on size or power consumption. If the product functioned as required there was no need to change. However, everything is now a cost centre and everything has to be more efficient. The high level of integration, that the mobile industry developed, has migrated across to other industries such as healthcare and industrial applications, resulting in increased performance and efficiency. Another important factor is the implementation of lots of power management DC/DC converters on to one chip. This not only saves space on system and running costs but also provides the opportunity to integrate a lot of management functionality such as supervisories or a small digital interface so that you can actually change voltages on demand to make the power supply more efficient in low load conditions This functionality really is needed because systems are becoming more and more connected with more interfaces, and with more interfaces you need different voltages, therefore it is crucial that devices are compatible and variable. This trend is only going to gain more momentum with the internet of things. As more and more devices, no matter how small, are being connected to the internet via IPV6 in order to monitor environments from temperature, movement and accelerometers to control and source information. Companies that are successfully adapting and innovating Internet of Things platforms are focused on identifying meaningful opportunities, not just technologies. These opportunities bridge a practical understanding of what embedded computing could potentially do with a clear understanding of what will change the game for a large cross-section of industries. Automation continues to play a substantial role in reducing energy costs and carbon emissions. Much of this increase in efficiency can be attributed to today's advances in system monitoring and control technologies. At the heart of these advanced and innovative systems are ADIs signal processing ICs that include A/D and D/A converters, amplifiers, power management, RFICs and so much more. When you compare power 20 years ago to power today, the amount of intelligence in power systems has exploded. Although there is more to be considered, it has finally become obvious that a little active management can go a long way in system efficiency. Frederik Dostal is the technical manager of ADI's power business.