Did the Power Lunch Really Pack a Punch?

We journalists are spoilt creatures. We get invited to some very nice places to consume some extremely toothsome cuisine while hearing about and subsequently sitting in judgment on all sorts of technological developments.

It was no real surprise then that the pack of electronics hacks were licking their collective lips as they assembled for lunch at the Savoy Hotel, London, to hear about some of the latest product developments from Texas Instruments (TI).

As it turned out, this was a power lunch in the real sense of the word. The food, well, that was right up to Savoy standards, but what about the electronics technology that TI had put on the menu?

Industry's first 80V half-bridge GaN FET module

There was plenty of very appetising stuff, not the least of which was the unveiling of the industry's first 80V half-bridge GaN FET module. This power stage prototype consists of a high-frequency driver and two GaN FETs in a half-bridge configuration, all in a quad flat no-leads (QFN) package.

Called the LMG5200 GaN FET power stage, TI believes it will help accelerate market adoption of next-generation GaN power conversion solutions that provide increased power density and efficiency in space-constrained, high frequency industrial and telecom applications.

Typically, designers who use GaN FETs that switch at high frequencies must be careful with board layout to avoid ringing and electromagnetic interference (EMI). The LMG5200 power stage prototype will help with these technical challenges, says TI, while increasing power-stage efficiency by reducing packaging parasitic inductances in the critical gate-drive loop. The LMG5200 is optimised to support power-conversion topologies with frequencies up to 5 MHz.

New wide VIN, four-switch buck-boost controller

Gallium Nitride technology wasn't the only offering from TI. It also launched a new wide VIN, four-switch buck-boost controller that achieves good power efficiency with reduced EMI. The LM5175 manages input voltages from 3.5V to 42V and regulates output voltages from 0.8V to 55V.

The LM5175 flexible DC/DC controller addresses a variety of buck-boost applications from output power of a few Watts to greater than 100W using a single device. A proprietary switching scheme is reckoned to boost efficiency in the buck-boost transition region and uses a single inductor to further reduce board space. Robust gate drive (2A at 7.5 V) enables wide VIN MOSFETs to switch faster and more efficiently. Optional hiccup mode short-circuit protection prevents thermal runaway during extended load current faults, reducing thermal stress by up to 30%, says the company.

32bit MSP432 microcontrollers (MCUs)

Last but not least was the company's latest 32bit MSP432 microcontrollers (MCUs) which extend ultra-low-power performance to the ARM Cortex-M4F core. These 48MHz MCUs consume 95µA/MHz in active power and 850nA in standby power. Industry-leading integrated analog, such as a high-speed 14bit 1MSPS analog-to-digital converter, further optimises power efficiency and performance.

Performance-wise the MCUs deliver a ULPBench score of 167.4 which, claims TI, outperforms all other Cortex-M3 and -M4F MCUs on the market. An integrated DC/DC optimises power efficiency at high-speed operation, while an integrated LDO reduces overall system cost and design complexity. In addition, a 14bit ADC consumes 375µA at 1MSPS.

A selectable RAM retention feature provides dedicated power to each of the eight RAM banks needed for an operation, so overall system power can be reduced by 30nA per bank. They can also operate as low as 1.62V and as high as 3.7V with full-speed operation to lower overall system power. Not surprisingly, this is TI's flagship product in its 32bit ultra-low-power MSP MCU portfolio.

So were the assembled scribes suitably satiated at the end of the TI Savoy press lunch? From a food and technology perspective, I'd say yes, although appetite-wise, that's really a never-ending story!