Use real-time MCU to conform to the design trend of server power supply
“With the increasing use of servers and data centers worldwide, there is an increasing demand for stable and efficient power supplies to cope with increasing power consumption. Power consumption has been growing rapidly, so more integrated central processing units, graphics processing units and accelerators are needed to increase the computing speed of servers and data centers. The improvement of application efficiency has given birth to the development of power supply units (PSU) to provide high energy efficiency, fast transient response, high power density and greater power capacity.
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With the increasing use of servers and data centers worldwide, there is an increasing demand for stable and efficient power supplies to cope with increasing power consumption. Power consumption has been growing rapidly, so more integrated central processing units, graphics processing units and accelerators are needed to increase the computing speed of servers and data centers. The improvement of application efficiency has given birth to the development of power supply units (PSU) to provide high energy efficiency, fast transient response, high power density and greater power capacity.
High energy efficiency
A server PSU with high energy efficiency can reduce the cost of operating a data center and its impact on the environment by reducing power consumption and increasing the power transmission efficiency between the power supply and the load to a greater extent. This capability enables data centers to meet increasingly stringent energy efficiency standards (such as 80 Plus), achieve above-average titanium-level energy efficiency in various load ranges, and emit less carbon dioxide to the environment.
Fast transient response
In server power applications, fast transient response helps to achieve stable and reliable system operation under constantly changing load and input transient conditions. In addition, the system needs to meet the more stringent transient response specifications of server power original equipment manufacturers: 80% to 100% load jumps between 2.5A/µS and 5A/µS. Figure 1 illustrates these parameters.
Figure 1: Transient response parameters
Higher power density and greater power capacity
The power consumption of servers and data centers continues to increase, so greater power capacity is required. By providing greater power capacity in a smaller space, power technologies such as gallium nitride (GaN) can enable smaller power supplies. In order to achieve high power density in the power system and reduce the bill of materials of the entire system, it is essential to use a real-time microcontroller (MCU) to control the high switching frequency.
Overcome the design challenges of server PSU
In order to achieve the above advantages, server PSU manufacturers face several design challenges, such as implementing complex power topologies, such as totem pole bridgeless power factor correction and control algorithms, including zero voltage switching, zero current switching, synchronous rectification timing, and hybrid hysteresis Controlled inductance-inductance-capacitor resonant DC/DC conversion.
Enable real-time control performance to speed up the execution of the control loop.
Reduce power consumption when using wide band gap power devices such as GaN and silicon carbide (SiC) while maintaining a higher switching frequency.
In order to meet the increasing requirements for power efficiency and power density of server PSU systems, real-time MCUs need to have several key features, such as low-latency signal chain, high pulse-width modulation (PWM) flexibility and resolution, high control loop speed and High switching frequency. Figure 2 shows an example PSU block diagram.
Figure 2: Typical dual-controller architecture for server power supplies with AC/DC and DC/DC levels
The TMS320F280039C C2000™ real-time MCU provides all the above features and can also help meet or reduce the design budget of the server PSU. They will continue to improve the integrated real-time signal chain (sensing, processing and control) with flexible and innovative features. Figure 3 shows the F28003x series.
Figure 3: F28003x MCU expands the C2000 real-time MCU product portfolio
High-precision detection
The F280039C MCU achieves the high energy efficiency and fast transient response of the server PSU through its integrated analog components (including multiple 4MSPS analog-to-digital converters that can flexibly manage the conversion start, with 11 effective digits and a post-processing block). The MCU also integrates a fast analog comparator with optimized power control functions, such as blanking, delay tripping, peak current mode control and slope compensation, to achieve accurate power conversion.
High-performance processing
F280039C is based on a 32-bit digital signal processor architecture and combined with a control law accelerator. It can provide real-time performance of more than 240MIPS. It has features such as a floating-point unit and a trigonometric accelerator, which can achieve higher power density and high transient response, and can handle Complex time-critical calculations.
Flexible high resolution control
In a high-power server PSU system, even at high frequencies, it is essential to achieve greater power capacity and maintain phase-to-phase synchronization. F280039C provides a 150ps resolution PWM channel, with valley switching, delayed tripping, dead time adjustment and global reloading functions, and can accurately control complex power supply topologies and control algorithms. The integrated configurable logic block further enhances the flexibility of PWM and seamlessly connects with GaN technology to achieve high power density.
Other advantages of C2000 real-time MCU in server PSU system
In addition to the trend of power management and fast real-time control, F280039C MCU can also meet several other hotspot requirements of server PSU:
The real-time firmware update can seamlessly switch to the new firmware without interrupting the power supply, and through multiple models with multiple flash memory options and faster flash memory group erasing time, software overhead can be reduced to a greater extent.
The communication interface is transferred from the PMBus to the Controller Area Network (CAN) bus (and possibly CAN-FD) to achieve faster speed, higher data rate and reliable host communication.
Security through encryption functions (such as advanced encryption standards, secure boot, and security joint test action groups) can protect code and data from external attacks in this more interconnected world and address industry concerns.
Concluding remarks
The F280039C MCU has been expanded on the C2000 MCU platform to provide integrated functions that can help you achieve advanced real-time control while reducing bill of materials costs. The F28003x MCU series has achieved higher energy efficiency, higher power density and faster response time by unlocking the full potential of wide band gap technologies such as GAN and SiC, which complements these technologies. Easy-to-use software can speed up the development of server PSU designers.
With the increasing use of servers and data centers worldwide, there is an increasing demand for stable and efficient power supplies to cope with increasing power consumption. Power consumption has been growing rapidly, so more integrated central processing units, graphics processing units and accelerators are needed to increase the computing speed of servers and data centers. The improvement of application efficiency has given birth to the development of power supply units (PSU) to provide high energy efficiency, fast transient response, high power density and greater power capacity.
High energy efficiency
A server PSU with high energy efficiency can reduce the cost of operating a data center and its impact on the environment by reducing power consumption and increasing the power transmission efficiency between the power supply and the load to a greater extent. This capability enables data centers to meet increasingly stringent energy efficiency standards (such as 80 Plus), achieve above-average titanium-level energy efficiency in various load ranges, and emit less carbon dioxide to the environment.
Fast transient response
In server power applications, fast transient response helps to achieve stable and reliable system operation under constantly changing load and input transient conditions. In addition, the system needs to meet the more stringent transient response specifications of server power original equipment manufacturers: 80% to 100% load jumps between 2.5A/µS and 5A/µS. Figure 1 illustrates these parameters.
Figure 1: Transient response parameters
Higher power density and greater power capacity
The power consumption of servers and data centers continues to increase, so greater power capacity is required. By providing greater power capacity in a smaller space, power technologies such as gallium nitride (GaN) can enable smaller power supplies. In order to achieve high power density in the power system and reduce the bill of materials of the entire system, it is essential to use a real-time microcontroller (MCU) to control the high switching frequency.
Overcome the design challenges of server PSU
In order to achieve the above advantages, server PSU manufacturers face several design challenges, such as implementing complex power topologies, such as totem pole bridgeless power factor correction and control algorithms, including zero voltage switching, zero current switching, synchronous rectification timing, and hybrid hysteresis Controlled inductance-inductance-capacitor resonant DC/DC conversion.
Enable real-time control performance to speed up the execution of the control loop.
Reduce power consumption when using wide band gap power devices such as GaN and silicon carbide (SiC) while maintaining a higher switching frequency.
In order to meet the increasing requirements for power efficiency and power density of server PSU systems, real-time MCUs need to have several key features, such as low-latency signal chain, high pulse-width modulation (PWM) flexibility and resolution, high control loop speed and High switching frequency. Figure 2 shows an example PSU block diagram.
Figure 2: Typical dual-controller architecture for server power supplies with AC/DC and DC/DC levels
The TMS320F280039C C2000™ real-time MCU provides all the above features and can also help meet or reduce the design budget of the server PSU. They will continue to improve the integrated real-time signal chain (sensing, processing and control) with flexible and innovative features. Figure 3 shows the F28003x series.
Figure 3: F28003x MCU expands the C2000 real-time MCU product portfolio
High-precision detection
The F280039C MCU achieves the high energy efficiency and fast transient response of the server PSU through its integrated analog components (including multiple 4MSPS analog-to-digital converters that can flexibly manage the conversion start, with 11 effective digits and a post-processing block). The MCU also integrates a fast analog comparator with optimized power control functions, such as blanking, delay tripping, peak current mode control and slope compensation, to achieve accurate power conversion.
High-performance processing
F280039C is based on a 32-bit digital signal processor architecture and combined with a control law accelerator. It can provide real-time performance of more than 240MIPS. It has features such as a floating-point unit and a trigonometric accelerator, which can achieve higher power density and high transient response, and can handle Complex time-critical calculations.
Flexible high resolution control
In a high-power server PSU system, even at high frequencies, it is essential to achieve greater power capacity and maintain phase-to-phase synchronization. F280039C provides a 150ps resolution PWM channel, with valley switching, delayed tripping, dead time adjustment and global reloading functions, and can accurately control complex power supply topologies and control algorithms. The integrated configurable logic block further enhances the flexibility of PWM and seamlessly connects with GaN technology to achieve high power density.
Other advantages of C2000 real-time MCU in server PSU system
In addition to the trend of power management and fast real-time control, F280039C MCU can also meet several other hotspot requirements of server PSU:
The real-time firmware update can seamlessly switch to the new firmware without interrupting the power supply, and through multiple models with multiple flash memory options and faster flash memory group erasing time, software overhead can be reduced to a greater extent.
The communication interface is transferred from the PMBus to the Controller Area Network (CAN) bus (and possibly CAN-FD) to achieve faster speed, higher data rate and reliable host communication.
Security through encryption functions (such as advanced encryption standards, secure boot, and security joint test action groups) can protect code and data from external attacks in this more interconnected world and address industry concerns.
Concluding remarks
The F280039C MCU has been expanded on the C2000 MCU platform to provide integrated functions that can help you achieve advanced real-time control while reducing bill of materials costs. The F28003x MCU series has achieved higher energy efficiency, higher power density and faster response time by unlocking the full potential of wide band gap technologies such as GAN and SiC, which complements these technologies. Easy-to-use software can speed up the development of server PSU designers.
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