High-speed designs use digital components with very fast edge rates in their output signals which can be subjected to significant distortion and degradation creating high bit-error-rates and lower data throughput.  Insertion and reflection losses, crosstalk and impedance mismatch, are all factors, amongst others, influencing the integrity of a transmitted signal.

Empower’s E-CAP silicon capacitors provide wide bandwidth low impedance highly stable decoupling capacitors capable of being placed close and even integrated into an SoC substrate.

Empower Semiconductor is developing power management solutions enabling full unrestricted speed and performance of the latest xPUs.

  • High power density
  • High bandwidth conversion
  • Low power distribution losses
  • Vertical Power

The ability to process data and perform complex calculations at high speeds has been intensified in recent years by leaps in technologies such as artificial intelligence, 3-D imaging and autonomous driving. These technologies have exacerbated the need for faster and more complex processors and architectures.

Equipment designed to operate within a high magnetic field environment can experience power failures or abnormal operating conditions due to the force the magnetic field imposes on ferromagnetic material-based electronics.

Moreover, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices can record false or distorted images due to the inferences from such electronics. Empower’s IVRs regulators use non-ferromagnetic air-core inductors ideal for operating in harsh magnetic environments.

Data being communicated and processed around the globe is rapidly growing, driving the need for a new generation of faster data processing components and elements in data centers and datacom equipment.

Empower Semiconductor offers novel fully integrated power management solutions that both increase performance and solve the power density challenge of space-constrained data-intensive applications.

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System-on-Modules (SOMs) and Computer-on-Modules (CoMs) provide all components of an embedded processing system (processors, communication interfaces, memory blocks, power management, etc.) on a single production-ready printed circuit board (PCB). This modular approach makes them ideal for embedding into a variety of end systems and applications.Empower’s IVRs provide high-density configurable multi-rails regulators enabling rapid and flexible prototyping.

Chiplet architectures are rapidly gaining popularity over monolithic designs in developing complex SoCs. While providing increased performance, design flexibility and upgradability, they do, however, require more complex power management and PCB routing.

Empower’s IVRs can be integrated as an additional chiplet into an SoC increasing the power delivery efficiency and simplifying PCB routing.

Empower Semiconductor Achieves the World’s Fastest Transient Response in a Power Management Device…Ever!

Mar 23, 2021 | Press Release

The Empower Integrated Voltage Regulator delivers a new benchmark in speed from zero to 10A in 500ns.

Milpitas, Calif., March 23rd, 2021 — Empower Semiconductor, the world leader in Integrated Voltage Regulators (IVR), today announced they have achieved the world’s fastest transient response times in the Integrated Voltage Regulator family of Power Management devices. The Empower IVR EP7010 is a 10A Regulator that can regulate through a load step from zero to 10A in 500ns with <15mv droop, with NO output capacitors!  

Empower Semi’s patented digitally configurable hardware platform has simplified the adoption of DC/DC converters for designers.  With a single footprint, no external components, extensive programmability, a wide range of current and output configurations, power designers can proliferate the EP70xx across nearly all designs and platforms.  By having multiple entire power supplies in a single IC package, the usual concerns of component variation and sourcing, synchronization and stability are all either eliminated or reduced significantly.

With its revolutionary product platform, the EP70xx, Empower has achieved the total integration of a triple output DC/DC power supply with no external components into a single tiny 5mm x 5mm package, attaining up to 10x higher power density, 3x tighter accuracy during transients, and 1000x faster dynamic voltage scaling than leading competitors.

“Fast start-up times can be critical in many applications and being able to offer the world’s fastest transient response times is critical to many customers.  With this game-changing speed improving both energy efficiency and performance is having a tremendous impact,” said Steve Shultis, Senior Vice President WW Sales and Marketing at Empower Semiconductor. “We have achieved incredible results in our EP70XX product family that has now delivered the world’s fastest transient speeds from zero to 10A in 500ns with <15mv droop without any output capacitors.  This combination of density, speed and efficiency are allowing designers to utilize our products in groundbreaking ways, enabling breakthrough levels of system performance.”

System designers are leveraging the EP70xx’s tight voltage regulation through an ultra-fast load transient by lowering the operating voltage of the system. The power consumption of a system is directly proportional to the operating voltage. By narrowing the window required for the voltage variation without additional components, Empower’s IVRs have enabled 10% or more power savings and corresponding heat dissipation. This results in a two-fold benefit of reduction in cooling costs and improved performance!

“The Empower EP70xx family achieves bandwidths higher than our competitors’ switching speeds.  Those experienced in the industry have to do a double-take at the time axis when looking at scope shots – we are used to dealing in microseconds, not nanoseconds.  At typical load current ramp rates, our system regulates through the event instead of just trying to catch up.  This dynamic accuracy, along with our incredible DVS speeds, allows our customers to confidently drop the operating voltage in their system, providing enormous power savings in addition to the impressive board space reduction that Empower is known for,” said Trey Roessig, Chief Technology Officer & SVP of Engineering of Empower Semiconductor.

The EP70xx family displays peak efficiencies of up to 92% with a nearly flat efficiency curve up through 10A of output current due to its unique architecture.  The devices showcase 1,000x faster dynamic voltage scaling than competing products, enabling fast and lossless processor state changes that can save 30% or more of processor power.

EP70xx family is available with nine devices to choose from with up to three regulators per device. Outputs are available from 2A to 10A in a 5x5mm or 4x4mm package with a 0.75mm profile, which is 3-5x thinner than traditional integrated power modules and inductors.  The products achieve a level of density and simplicity so high that they are also available in bumped die form for co-packaging with digital ICs, enabling full power management integration into an SoC.

To view product details, visit https://www.empowersemi.com/product-page-ivr/

Product samples, demo boards, and reference designs of the EP70xx family are available immediately.

About Empower Semiconductor

The exponential increase in the amount of data being communicated and processed around the globe is driving the energy consumption of datacenters and communications networks to 17% of total electricity demand worldwide by 2030(1), dramatically increasing pollution, carbon emissions and cost.  Empower Semiconductor was founded with the mission to “minimize the energy footprint of the digital economy” by developing novel fully integrated power management solutions that both increase the performance and reduce power consumption of energy-hungry, data-intensive applications.

Traditional power solutions require dozens of discrete components with big footprints, complex designs and deliver power inefficiently with poor response times and inaccuracies. Empower Semiconductor’s patented IVR technology integrates dozens of components into a single IC increasing efficiency, shrinking footprints by 10x and delivering power with unprecedented simplicity, speed & accuracy and with zero discrete components. The Empower IVR™ technology solves the power density challenge to address a wide range of applications including mobile, wearables, 5G, AI, and data centers. In 2020 the capacitor technology platform was added to further address power density. E-CAP revolutionized the capacitor industry as the world’s smallest, highest performing, and incredibly reliable capacitor for wearables, mobile, and SoC applications. The company is based in Milpitas, CA and is led by a team of highly experienced power experts and executives.

  1. Nature, “How to stop data centres from gobbling up the world’s electricity”, September 12, 2018

Empower Semiconductor and the Empower logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Empower Semiconductor, Inc. All other brands, product names and marks are or may be trademarks or registered trademarks used to identify products or services of their respective owners.