
Read this paper by Maurizio Salato and Ugo Ghisla, which was originally presented at ICDCM 2015, to learn more about the use of high voltage DC power distribution to optimize datacenter power architectures.
AC-DC converters for industrial applications have been relying on double-stage architecture for quite a long time. A non-isolated, single- or three-phase, single- or multi-level stage typically feeds an isolated DC-DC stage, with capacitors between the two stages providing the necessary energy storage. The need for high efficiency and high density has determined the evolution of distributed power systems toward architectures that employ optimized power components. Among those power components, fixed-ratio bus converters have been developed to provide state-of-the-art performance, including components capable of 300-400V DC input that provide isolated, Safety-Extra-Low-Voltage (SELV) output. This paper,...
This paper, presented at PCIM 2014 by David Bourner, one of our applications engineers, provides a comparison between Factorized Power Architecture (FPA) and the Yeaman Topology in a regulated, high density DC-DC application. It describes a variant on FPA that utilizes a Power Component Methodology, and compares FPA solutions against the Yeaman Topology. A description of the investigation methods used and outcomes of various tests to establish performance metrics follow. Practical aspects of applying power components to both FP and YT architectures are followed by a summary of salient attributes for each system. The Yeaman...
The ChiP Platform provides a dramatic improvement in thermal management, allowing cooling through both the top and bottom sides of the package, as well as the leads. The thermal performance of this new packaging technology helps power system designers keep pace with the demands to increase power density at a greater rate than improvements in converter efficiency.
The efficiency of conventional hard-switched niPOL regulators drops as the step-down ratio increases, and falls dramatically when required to accept a wide input range with step down ratios approaching 36:1. This means that designers have been forced to incorporate multiple converter stages, limiting the step-down ratio of each stage to maintain efficiency at acceptable levels.