New digital signal controllers boost efficiency in power conversion applications

A new family of dsPIC33 “GS” Digital Signal Controllers (DSCs) — brings new features while lowering power consumption, enabling higher efficiency in ac-dc and dc-dc power supplies, HID and LED lighting, solar inverters, and other power conversion applications.

The five-member dsPIC33FJ09GS302 family is optimized for digital-power applications via integrated high-speed ADCs, a zero-wait-state signal processing core, and flexible high-resolution PWMs. These peripherals are integrated for streamlined interoperation, enabling sub-microsecond digital control loops. Other key features of this family include on-chip analog comparators with programmable hysteresis and rail-to-rail operation, and an on-chip PMBus address selection current source to reduce external components. These new DSCs offer the lowest power dissipation of any of the GS family members, and are the first available in a 20-pin SSOP package and the even smaller 36-pin VTLA package, which has a 5 x 5-mm footprint.

Also new is the MPLAB Starter Kit for Digital Power that lets designers explore digital power conversion using the dsPIC33 “GS” architecture in widely used digital power-conversion topologies. The Kit includes a buck converter and a boost converter with onboard programmable loads for each, along with an LCD display for voltage, current, temperature, and fault conditions. An onboard debugger/programmer with a USB interface is included.
Microchip Technology Inc., 2355 W. Chandler Blvd., Chandler, AZ 85224. Phone: (480) 792-7200.