For use in PoL (point-of-load) converter designs, International Rectifier has launched the XPhase IR3513 control IC. XPhase is IR's distributed multiphase architecture that consists of control ICs and phase ICs that communicate using a simple six-wire bus scheme. Phases can be added or removed without changing the fundamental design. The IC provides overall control of a scalable number of phases along with an internal gate driver, current sense and sharing, and PWM to provide a stand-alone single-phase regulator or interface with additional phase ICs, enabling a power solution with any number of phases. With this arrangement, the final solution requires only a single IC per phase to deploy one to X phases. Alternative approaches require a control IC plus 1 to X driver ICs or scalable "all-in-one" ICs that do not use all IC pins or circuitry, leading to increased solution cost and size, according to the company. The new device features 0.8 to 5.1V output voltage with 0.5% system set-point accuracy and programmable 250kHz to 9MHz daisy-chain digital phase timing to provide a per-phase switching frequency of 250kHz to 1.5MHz with no external components. Protection features include over-voltage protection, detection and protection of open remote sense lines and open-control-loop protection. When co-designed with the IR3505 and IR3507 phase ICs, this control IC is claimed to enable a power supply that is smaller and easier to design while providing higher efficiency and a lower overall system cost than alternative approaches, delivering a full-featured and flexible way to implement a complete power solution. The IR3513M, 250kHz device is packaged in a 5x5 MLPQ, the IR3505M/MTR comes in a 3x3x1.5mm MLPQ and the IR3507MPBF is in a 4x4x1.5mm MLPQ.
