New power management chips for protection and efficiency in modern data centres

Texas Instruments has debuted new power-management chips to support modern data centres' rapidly growing power needs. As high-performance computing and AI adoption increases, data centres require more power-dense and efficient solutions. The new TPS1685 is the industry's first 48V integrated hot-swap eFuse with power-path protection to support data centre hardware and processing demands. To simplify data centre design, the company also introduced a new family of integrated GaN power stages, the LMG3650R035, LMG3650R025 and LMG3650R070, in industry-standard TOLL packaging.

"With data centres increasingly demanding more energy, powering the world's digital infrastructure begins with smarter, more efficient semiconductors," said Robert Taylor, general manager of Industrial Power Design Services. "While advanced chips drive AI's computational power, analog semiconductors are key to maximizing energy efficiency. Our latest power-management innovations are enabling data centres to reduce their environmental footprint while supporting the growing needs of our digital world."

As power demands surge, data centre designers are shifting to 48V power architectures for improved efficiency and scalability to support components such as CPUs, GPUs and AI hardware accelerators. The company's 48V stackable integrated hot-swap eFuse with power-path protection empowers designers to tackle high-power (>6kW) processing needs with a scalable device that simplifies design and lowers solution size by half compared to existing hot-swap controllers in the market.

Also, the company introduced a new family of integrated GaN power stages. The LMG3650R035, LMG3650R025 and LMG3650R070 use the benefits of TI GaN in an industry-standard TOLL package, enabling designers to take advantage of TI GaN efficiency with no costly and time-consuming redesigns.

The new power stages combine a high-performance gate driver with a 650V GaN FET while achieving high efficiency (>98%) and high power density (>100W/in3). They also integrate advanced protection features, including over-current protection, short-circuit protection and over-temperature protection. This is particularly important for AC/DC applications like server power, where designers are challenged to push more power into smaller spaces.