Quarter brick digital DC-DC converter for RFPA market

Flex Power Modules has released its BMR683, a new series of digital PMBus DC-DC converters mainly aimed at radio frequency power amplifier (RFPA) applications and infrastructure for the 5G telecom market. The new converter family offers essential monitoring functionality and control of the feedback loop to help stabilisation.

The high-density converter is provided in the industry-standard quarter-brick format, saving useful board space. The device has an output power up to 500W at 28Vout, and an input voltage range of 36V to 60V. Providing an excellent price/performance ratio, it has typical efficiency peaking at 95.5% at full load, and a wide output voltage adjustment range of 14V to 35V, allowing for easy optimisation of the connected RF section.

For RFPA applications using 28V GaN or LDMOS power amplifier designs, the high-power converter offers a digital PMBus interface to enable easy monitoring of input and output voltages, output current, and device temperature. The device also enables users to configure many aspects of the device operation incorporating voltage and current for improved fault tolerance, and optimisation of the module’s control loop for stable operation in a broad variety of circumstances. Power management features also comprise configurable soft start/stop, precision delay, and ramp-up.

Sophisticated over-voltage, over-temperature and short-circuit protection mechanisms allow a prolonged operational lifespan, with an MTBF of over five million hours.

As with all of the company's DC-DC converters, these units comply with IEC/EN/UL 62368-1 safety standards. The devices provide a working temperature range of -40C to +125C. The industry-standard quarter-brick DC-DC converter measures 58.4mm x 36.8mm x 12.7mm (2.3" x 1.45" x 0.5").

Olle Hellgren, director product management and business development at Flex Power Modules, said: “The BMR683 combines exceptional efficiency, power density and reliability with increased design flexibility and monitoring functionality by including a digital interface for the first time for GaN and LDMOS RFPA applications. The control optimisation especially makes this new solution ideal for dealing with the load fluctuations in FPGA applications.”