Worldwide agreement on digital power technology
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Ericsson Power Modules has been granted a worldwide license on a patent portfolio for digital power technology (DPT) from Power-One. The non-exclusive license agreement provides Ericsson Power Modules with access to Power-One's portfolio of DPT patents for incorporation in its series of 3E digitally controlled point of load devices.
Ericsson Power Modules' vp and head, Martin Hägerdal, believes the collaboration will secure a rapid deployment of 3E, the company's digital board mounting technology, in the market place. Hägerdal said: "3E … offers new opportunities for board mounted power solutions and savings in the design, production and operation of systems using distributed power architecture dynamically controlled."
Richard Thompson, president and chief executive officer of Power-One, added: "By partnering with Ericsson Power Modules … we will expand the use of DPT to board mounted power supplies. These technologies reduce energy consumption and increase the customer's return on investment."
The internal design of Ericsson's 3E POL regulators uses digital power control techniques. While these products can be applied using the same techniques as conventional analogue POL regulators, Ericsson says it is now possible to have access, via a PMBus interface, to critical information such as load condition, temperature, voltage and current delivered. This then makes it possible to monitor the distributed energy down to processor level.
The addition of Power-One's digital power technology patents to the existing and future products is designed to open a broader range of operation and allow users to fully programme and monitor digitally controlled POL devices with an array of functions.
