In this second decade of the 21st Century, power density has become a very important, universal figure of merit (FOM) for power supplies and power-system architectures. An array of advances and new methods have arrived to help designers to achieve high power density, including 3D power packaging, innovative control methods, improved gate drivers and wide-bandgap power transistors, new converter topologies, and higher circuit-integration techniques, just to name a few.
Here we’ll present several unique design methods to achieve high power density in four major design architectures. These design examples will help fuel the creative juices of power designers in this new millennium.