67a21fc9776f5a23ef70c594 Dreamstime L 354001586

Versatile 16-Phase, 2-Rail PMIC Supports NVIDIA GPU-Based Apps

Feb. 4, 2025

Specifically designed to NVIDIA’s latest OpenVreg16 Phase specifications, Alpha and Omega Semi’s power-management IC delivers an efficient, flexible power solution.

Lee Goldberg

Related To: Electronic Design

Alpha and Omega Semiconductor’s (AOS) AOZ73016QI is a 16-phase, 2-rail controller specifically designed to the latest OpenVReg16 (OVR16) specifications from NVIDIA. The AOZ73016QI controller design is based on the company’s high-performance, proprietary AOS Advanced Transient Modulator (A2TM) control scheme, which offers high-level current balance at all load conditions as well as during fast load transients.

In addition to supporting all basic requirements of the OVR16 specification, the new AOS power-management IC (PMIC) offers value-added features such as R_DS(on) and DC resistance (DCR) sensing for current monitoring and current balance. These features enable AOS’s controller to support both DrMOS and Smart Power Stages (SPS) to deliver a complete AI server and graphic-card power solution along with increased design flexibility.

The controller also supports phase doubling or tripling without an external phase multiplier, allowing for a single controller to provide up to 48 phases to its associated power stages.

When paired with AOS’s high-performance DrMOS and SPS power stages, designers can achieve high efficiency and thermal performance. This will significantly cut transient power demands by several hundred watts during the brief periods when the SoC draws peak power.

The AOZ73016QI offers full programmability via the PMBus interface and is AVSBus-compliant. The device features digitally programmable voltage- and current-regulation loops, minimizing the external components required to implement a solution. It supports electronic control system (ECS) programmability with the ability to update configuration in the field, and to pre-program up to six configuration settings with a pin-strap selection

The AOZ73016QI is immediately available in production quantities with a lead time of 12 to 16 weeks. Unit pricing starts at $4.00 in 1,000-piece quantities.

About the Author

Lee Goldberg | Contributing Editor

Lee Goldberg is a self-identified “Recovering Engineer,” Maker/Hacker, Green-Tech Maven, Aviator, Gadfly, and Geek Dad. He spent the first 18 years of his career helping design microprocessors, embedded systems, renewable energy applications, and the occasional interplanetary spacecraft. After trading his ‘scope and soldering iron for a keyboard and a second career as a tech journalist, he’s spent the next two decades at several print and online engineering publications.

Lee’s current focus is power electronics, especially the technologies involved with energy efficiency, energy management, and renewable energy. This dovetails with his coverage of sustainable technologies and various environmental and social issues within the engineering community that he began in 1996. Lee also covers 3D printers, open-source hardware, and other Maker/Hacker technologies.

Lee holds a BSEE in Electrical Engineering from Thomas Edison College, and participated in a colloquium on technology, society, and the environment at Goddard College’s Institute for Social Ecology. His book, “Green Electronics/Green Bottom Line - A Commonsense Guide To Environmentally Responsible Engineering and Management,” was published by Newnes Press.

Lee, his wife Catherine, and his daughter Anwyn currently reside in the outskirts of Princeton N.J., where they masquerade as a typical suburban family.

Lee also writes the regular PowerBites series.