Power Management Integrated Circuits

Ing. Alberto Gola, Ing. Stefano Scaldaferri
DialogSemiconductors

20 hours, 5 credits

September/October 2013

Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, via Caruso, meeting room, ground floor

Contacts: Prof. Giuseppe Iannaccone

Abstract

PMIC is the acronym of Power Management Integrated Circuit which is more than a simple IC: it is a quite complex system which replaces discrete or integrated power management components with highly integrated single chip solutions providing power supply domain flexibility, increased efficiency, space saving, as well as improved reliability and design simplicity. These systems find their applications in Smartphones, Mobile phones, Ultra books™, Tablet PCs, eReaders, Infotainment, Portable navigation devices, TV Media players.

In such a system it is mandatory to optimize all aspects of the design including electrical, thermal and mechanical (packaging) considerations, thus offering integration with multiple Power Management and analog functions on the chip, including:

• Programmable high-performance LDOs
• High-efficiency DC-DC voltage converters
• Intelligent battery charging circuits
• Software programmable LED drivers
• Sensor ADCs
• USB interfaces
• Integrated high performance, low power Audio

An overview of this system will be given, starting from block level and arriving at schematic details of the building blocks, in order to make the audience fully aware of this fast growing business in electronics.

Syllabus

• PMIC Architectures
• Building blocks of PMICs
• Principles of operations and circuit solutions
• PMIC market
• PMIC SoC integration