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Event overview:

A major challenge to the further miniaturisation of DC-DC converters is the inability to integrate passive components on silicon due to their relatively large size at today’s operating frequencies of 0.5 to 5 MHz. Increasing the switching frequencies into the 10 to 100 MHz region offers the potential for the reduction of passive component values to the point where, with the right technology, their size becomes compatible with silicon device dimensions.

Currently, significant R&D and product development activity is evident in advances in semiconductor, magnetic, capacitor and packaging material technologies that will deliver products operating at multi-MHz frequencies. The ultimate target is to develop new miniaturised product formats that can be referred to as power supply-in-package (PSiP) and power supply-on-chip (PwrSoC). This space has been under increasing focus from semiconductor companies due to their ability to deliver advanced silicon processing technologies and functional integration with increased reliability. This proliferation of functionally-integrated hardware solutions can be seen as an inflection point in the power supply industry which is seeing a dramatic move away from traditional power supply manufacturing (with a focus on the assembly of power supply modules or bricks from discrete components) to an increasing emphasis on power supply products derived from semiconductor and microelectronics platforms and technologies.

The speakers and conference organizers agreed that the interdisciplinary approach of PwrSOC’08 was essential to the successful development of power supply-on-chip technology. Application needs, technologies, manufacturing ability, and packaging have all converged to the point that a power SoC solution is not only possible but quite likely required in certain applications. Semiconductor manufacturers, materials researchers, system makers, and power supply designers all need to come together to address the problems of functional and packaging integration. The previous PwrSOC workshop was thus a significant step in that direction and the upcoming workshop is positioned to result in further significant progress in this field.

Tyndall’s Dr. Cian Ó Mathúna, the founder of the workshop concept, put the value of the workshop in context: “this concept of integrated power solutions presents a significant disruptive opportunity in power management solutions and warrants an international forum for its discussion and for the elucidation of the key challenges that lie ahead”.