Winchester, UK — Although the global economic downturn has depressed growth prospects across the electronics sector there still remain one or two bright spots that will nudge the industry forward during 2009.

Power management devices will continue to be the fastest growth segment of any analog IC category. Despite the credit crunch, the voltage regulator segment will grow at a 3.0 percent CAGR through to 2012 according to Gartner's 'Forecast: Power Management ICs, Worldwide, 2007-2012', G00164267.

A closer look at where growth in the power management devices market is coming from shows that the majority of the progress is being spurred on by the usage of voltage regulators in computer systems and industrial installations. Growth in this area is forecast to be at a rate of 4.5 percent CAGR through to 2012. By comparison and for reasons all too obvious in the general economic crisis, power management ICs supporting the consumer markets are set to see negligible growth of 0.1 percent CAGR.

Of all the component types ac-dc regulators and dc-dc regulators will show the fastest growth through 2012 " at 6.0 percent and 8.0 percent CAGR, respectively. The high energy transfer efficiencies these devices offer in computers and telecom switching station applications will help to drive the growth rate. Meanwhile linear regulator growth will decline through to 2012 as the result of a combination of rapidly declining prices in cellular phones and consumer equipment, together with the multiplicity of suppliers.

Large computer systems and communications servers will continue to be the biggest users of voltage regulator ICs. These systems use between 12 or 15 separate voltage regulators on each circuit card, and dozens of circuit cards per card cage. These regulators act as 'point of load' supplies for the local circuitry. Users are willing to pay a premium for high efficiency because it reduces the costs associated with aluminum heat sinks, computer cooling and air conditioning. High-efficiency switch-mode parts such as dc-dc converters are ideal for these applications and will show the highest revenue growth of any voltage regulator type at 8.0 percent.

The consumer electronics sector will remain in the doldrums in contrast to the IT/industrial market. Big volume items such as stereo equipment and set-top boxes are cost-driven and these equipment makers select their voltage regulators on the basis of cost rather than efficiency.

The drive to minimize costs in the consumer equipment market ensures the popularity of inefficient high-current linear regulators and LDOs in portable equipment. These devices are inexpensive, and their prices will decline on an equal but opposite slope with unit growth. Some companies, such as Cambridge Semiconductor Ltd. (Cambridge, England), are aiming to buck the consumer market's low-growth trend by taking an innovative approach to the challenge. CamSemi's controllers allow consumer electronics manufacturers to access all the size, weight and efficiency benefits of a switched-mode solution. The devices are designed to replace bulky, power- and raw material-hungry linear power supplies, but without having to pay a price premium.

CamSemi's C2471 performance controller ICs further improves on the size and performance advantages of alternative flyback SMPS offerings but without the hefty price tag of modern energy-inefficient solutions. The controllers are based on patented Resonant Discontinuous Forward Converter (RDFC) topology that maintains 'EMI clean' resonant switching over the full load variation. The approach generates low levels of EMI, making it suitable for telecoms and audio applications.

The C2471 controller complies with the demands of the Energy Star 2.0 specification which requires an average active efficiency for a 6-W cordless phone application at 120-V of 73 percent. C2471-based solutions deliver an 82 percent average efficiency. The no-load power consumption specification is 300-mW which CamSemi's solution cuts to 160 mW.

During 2009 system applications for energy-harvesting ultra-low-power conversion devices look set to rise exponentially. IC companies such as National Semiconductor, International Rectifier, Linear Technology, Analog Devices and Texas Instruments will be leading the drive. For example, Texas Instruments is looking to benefit from seeding the market in 2008 with kits that combined its low-power MSP430 microcontroller with conversion technologies from companies such as Perpetuum Ltd. and AdaptivEnergy LLC, as well as battery technology from Cymbet Corp.

The MSP430 claims the industry's lowest power consumption for devices that can provide up to 25-MHz peak performance, increased flash and RAM memory and integrated peripherals such as radio frequency, USB, encryption and LCD interfaces. The device offers designers the added functionality required to advance a range of applications in personal medical, home automation, human interface control, automated meter reading (AMR), portable instrumentation, sensors, consumer electronics and security.

In August 2008 AdaptivEnergy revealed a demonstration kit using so-called Joule-thief technology to harvest energy and power Texas Instruments' ultra-low power MSP430 microcontroller and RF technology to collect data, control the operation of a system or send sensed data to central collection sites. The Joule-thief energy harvesting device is based on AdaptivEnergy's ruggedized laminated piezo (RLP) technology.

"The Joule-thief energy harvester collects and stores electrical energy from tiny mechanical vibrations and then uses this harvested energy to power a small, low-power MSP430 MCU. The MCU helps enable a compact RF sensor design to implement ambient intelligence that can detect and report critical conditions in factories, automobiles, offices, homes and other environments, all without wiring or batteries," explained Jim Vogeley, CEO, AdaptivEnergy.

At the Embedded Systems Conference Boston in October 2008 Cymbet Corp. unveiled the EnerChip CC CBC3112 and CBC3150 thin-film batteries with integrated battery management which combine the Cymbet EnerChip with battery control logic in a single surface mount package. The EnerChip provides a backup power alternative to traditional bulkier power sources, such as coin cell batteries and super capacitors. EnerChip is designed for a range of MCUs including: TI MSP 430, Freescale HC, Atmel PicoPower AVR, MicroChip PIC, ST Micro ST62, EM Microelectronics EM.

The EnerChip CC combines several power system features: thin-film battery, charge pump with integrated dc-to-dc converter, supply supervisor, low-ripple charger, configurable switchover to battery when input power fails, supply voltage status signals, and operation from 2.5 volts to 5.5 volts.

Texas Instruments' CC430 technology platform was demonstrated for the first time at Electronica. The platform offers the industry's lowest power, single-chip RF solution for microcontroller-based applications and is aimed at driving mass-market adoption of consumer and industrial wireless networking applications. The CC430 platform helps advance applications including RF networking, energy harvesting, industrial monitoring and tamper detection, personal wireless networks and automatic metering infrastructure. The power-efficient, flexible CC430 platform also enables battery-free sensors that use energy harvesting modules that run off of solar power, human body temperature or vibrations for a power source.

Perpetuum's recently launched wSNAK wireless sensor node assessment kit allows OEMs and end-users to assess the benefits of condition monitoring systems powered by vibration energy-harvesting. The wSNAK is solely powered by Perpetuum's PMG17 vibration energy harvester which is enabled by low-power chip sets such as the CC430.

Vibration energy harvester-powered wireless sensor node " Perpetuum

Roy Freeland, CEO of Perpetuum, summed up the benefit of using low-power chip sets by saying: "Sensing applications are limitless, power supplies are not; solutions like the CC430 platform that combine low power and high functionality with the know-how to take the mystery out of RF design help bridge this gap to usher in a new age of energy solutions."

Electronica also saw International Rectifier Corp. reveal its plans for the next generation of power management solutions by unveiling prototypes using its gallium nitride (GaN)-based power device technology platform. The high throughput, 150-mm GaN-on-Si epitaxy platform, together with subsequent device fabrication processes, has been developed to offer improvements in key application-specific figures of up to a factor of ten compared to current silicon-based processes.

IR anticipates the process will lead to energy efficiency advances in a wide variety of applications including ac-dc power conversion, dc-dc power conversion, motor drives, lighting, high density audio and automotive systems.

Oleg Khaykin, IR's president and CEO, said: "The GaN-based technology platform and IP portfolio heralds a new era for power conversion. We fully anticipate the potential impact of this new device technology platform on the power conversion market to be at least as large as the introduction of the power HEXFET by IR some 30 years ago."

In conclusion, while the overall demand for electronics equipment may be suppressed in 2009 as the global economy adjusts to financial circumstances, the demand for reclaimed, renewable and energy- efficient circuits represents a bigger opportunity than ever before. For more information:

AdaptivEnergy

Analog Devices

Cymbet

Gartner

International Rectifier

Linear Technology

Maxim

National Semiconductor

NXP Semiconductor

Perpetuum

Texas Instruments

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