Texas Devices’ APEC-related releases are energy administration chips centered round supporting the AI-driven energy calls for in knowledge facilities. The releases embrace the primary 48-V built-in hot-swap eFuse with power-path safety (TPS1685) and an built-in GaN energy stage (gate driver + FET) within the industry-standard TOLL package deal. 

In a dialog with Priya Thanigai, VP and Enterprise Unit Supervisor of energy switches at Texas Devices, EDN obtained some insights on assembly the wants of next-generation racks demanding the 48-V structure.

Highlight on knowledge facilities

Sizzling matters at APEC sometimes encompassed using huge bandgap semiconductors like silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) to yield larger effectivity subsystems within the regular electrification of applied sciences. Electrified finish functions have spanned from e-mobility to industrial processes which might be enabled by battery and sensible grid developments. 

Discussions this yr have shifted extra towards the facility calls for that generative AI has created for knowledge facilities. Whereas a lot of the particular energy consumption of those knowledge facilities stays secretive, it’s obvious that LLMs like ChatGPT and DeepSeek have created a considerable enhance; the U.S. knowledge heart electrical energy utilization tripled from 2014 to 2023 in accordance with the U.S. division of vitality (DoE). The quantity is anticipated to double or triple by 2028.

The worldwide vitality company (IEA) additionally reported that knowledge facilities consumed ~1.4-1.7% of worldwide electrical energy in 2022; that is additionally anticipated to double by 2026. In line with the World Financial Discussion board, “the computational energy wanted for sustaining AI’s progress is doubling roughly each 100 days.”

Going nuclear

Hyperscalers are additionally making extra obvious their plans to maintain the vitality calls for. In September 2024, plans to recommission the Three Mile Island nuclear plant had been made public with a 20-year contract to assist energy Microsoft knowledge facilities. Different know-how firms observe an analogous nuclear path, augmenting energy capabilities with small modular reactors (SMRs).

And because the semiconductor {industry} is feverishly fabricating chips that may effectively run these compute-intensive coaching duties via software-hardware codesign, the facility calls for frequently soar. Additional into the longer term, these nuclear reactors may very well be used with solid-state transformers to assist knowledge heart processing.

The 48-V bus and past

The information heart server room consists of a sea of IT racks supported by a sidecar that holds hot-swappable energy provide items (PSUs) that facilitate changing or upgrading a PSU with out shutting down the server (Determine 1). These PSUs assist a lot larger energy densities shifting from 6 kW with the 48-V bus to 100 MW with the 400-V bus.

Determine 1: Sidecar, IT rack, and supporting subsystems proven on the TI sales space throughout APEC 2025. 

“Whereas knowledge facilities have been forward of the curve, vehicles are solely now shifting to 48 V,” stated Thanigai. “However knowledge facilities have most likely already been there for a few decade.” It’s simply been very sluggish as a result of earlier methods actually didn’t want the compute energy till LLMs exploded. Till then, it was solely the high-end GPUs that wanted that additional energy at 48 V.

She talked about how TI had been holding a watchful eye on the comparatively sluggish transfer from 12-V merchandise for knowledge facilities 48-V and the way latest pressures have introduced on that inflection level. “Now we’re seeing extra native 48-V methods ship and we’re speaking about 400-V already,” Thanigai stated. “So the transition from 12 V to 48 V could have taken a decade to hit the inflection level however 48 V to 400 V will most likely be shorter and sharper due to how a lot vitality is required by knowledge facilities.”

Shifting from discretes to built-in eFuses

Energy path safety is tied on to PSU reliability and is due to this fact a essential facet of guaranteeing zero downtime deployments. The 48-V eFuse is a successor to the favored 12-V eFuse class; the shift to 48 V permits customers to scale energy to past 6 kW. 

“If you happen to’re wanting on the energy design transition, usually energy architectures will start with discretes firstly of any design as a result of they need to get really feel of the best way to construct one thing,” defined Thanigai. The constructing blocks of energy path safety usually embrace the facility FET, a gate or voltage drive to drive it, and parts like a soft-start capacitor to manage the inrush, comparators, and current-sense components.

Thanigai described the strikes towards extra integration the place the recent swap controller integrates the amplifiers, a few of the safety options, and a few of the smarts. Nonetheless, there nonetheless stays an exterior FET and sensing component. 

“The final leg of the mixing is eFuse the place the FET, the controller, and all of the smarts are in a single chip,” she stated. “That’s a basic energy design evolution, the place you go from discrete to semi-integrated to completely built-in.” The TPS1685 eFuse contains safety options like fast response to fault occasions with an built-in black field for fault logging. Then there’s a user-configurable overcurrent blanking timer that avoids false tripping at peak inrush.

Superior stacking for hundreds > 6 kW

Mismatches within the on-state resistance (R_dson) because of PCB hint resistance and comparator thresholds can create false tripping (Determine 2). The traditional discrete designs require energy architects at hand calculate the margins to ensure the FETs are matched such that no single FET is taking up extra thermal stress than the others.  

Determine 2: Discrete implementations require particular person calculations per sense component and FET to consider mismatches at every node; as a substitute R_dson is actively adjusted by way of V_gs regulation and equal steady-state present throughout all units is achieved via path resistance equalization. Supply: Texas Devices 

The IP within the TPS1685 eFuse actively measures and screens the thermal stress at varied areas of the FET inside every of the eFuses and balances present between every routinely via a single-wire protocol. The mixing designates one eFuse as the first controller to watch whole system present through the use of the interconnected IMON pins, enabling energetic R_DS(ON) shifting to make sure units are current-sharing.

“You’ll be able to principally stack limitless eFuses,” stated Thanigai, “We’ve proven as much as 12 operational eFuses on a buyer board and every of them can do 1 kW (~ 50 V @ 20 A), so we simply attain the 5-10 kW that you simply see with methods these days. However we are able to scale larger than that since there’s no higher restrict.”

Determine 3: Picture of 6 eFuses stacked in parallel on the highest and backside of a PCB to assist a most load present of 120 A. 

Shifting towards 400 V

When requested concerning the transfer towards supporting 400-V bus architectures, Thanigai responded, “There’s two features in these eFuses.” There’s the pure analog energy area, which is the FET architectures, after which there’s the digital area which embodies smarts across the FET, she added.

All the digital IP TI has developed scales from 12 V to 48 V to 400 V, and that whereas this specific machine contains 48-V energy FETs, TI is getting ready to scale this as much as 400 V.

Aalyia Shaukat, affiliate editor at EDN, has labored within the design publishing {industry} for six years. She holds a Bachelor’s diploma in electrical engineering from Rochester Institute of Know-how, and has printed works in main EE journals in addition to commerce publications.

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• Information heart subsequent era energy provide options for improved effectivity

The put up Information heart energy meets rising vitality calls for amid AI growth appeared first on EDN.

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