Posted to News on 29th Feb 2008, 09:21
Half-brick DC-DC converters cope with high temperatures
Lambda is expanding its half-brick DC-DC converter line-up with the introduction of the new iHG series. Providing exceptional thermal performance, using the industry standard half-brick footprint with no base plate, these modules are suitable for engineers designing low-airflow, high-temperature 48V-power architectures for telecommunications, wireless, industrial and many other applications. The initial product offering within the iHG family includes 5V/10A, 5V/20A and 3.3V/30A devices with further products planned.
The single-board construction combined with up to 93 per cent efficiency is claimed to deliver a very high level of usable power in convection-cooled environments, particularly where airflow rates are low. Furthermore, with the all new digital control circuitry bringing a significant component count reduction as well as improved reliability and lower cost, the iHG products are well suited as replacements or upgrades in legacy applications.
Field-proven power conversion circuitry guarantees the iHG's monotonic start-up into a highly capacitive, pre-biased load and no-reverse current flow in standby, start-up, shut-down or parallel operation uses. In addition, a double-ended power train topology with FET-driven synchronous rectification combined with a secondary side auxiliary control rail ensures safe operation under all functional and fault conditions. According to Lambda, this makes its iHG a more robust and higher-reliability converter than other modules available on the market and therefore provides a suitable product for powering a broad range of reliability-critical applications.
'Green' credentials
Lambda also wishes to demonstrate its commitment to the green environmental issues of concern to all designers in every application today through the iHG's very low input current consumption in standby mode.
The input is fully isolated from the output, which provides different options for polarity and grounding connectivity. Standard features include fixed-frequency operation, output trim, remote sense, remote on/off, auto-recovery of input under voltage, output over current, over-temperature and over-voltage protection circuitry. Latching/non-latching protection and positive polarity on/off are offered as options.
Safety approvals for Lambda's new iHG family include UL60950 (USA and Canada), VDE 0805, CB scheme (IEC 950) and CE Mark (EN 60950).
