Enhance Power-Delivery Networks with High-Bandwidth Integrated Voltage Regulators (Download)
With advancement in technology, processors and other high-speed digital components such as CPUs, GPUs, ASICs, and FPGAs demand increasingly higher power, which means voltage regulators need to be able to dynamically supply current to the load. Lower voltage requirements, high current, and faster transients with tighter voltage windows lead to more emphasis on the performance of the PCB traces that carry the current to the processor.
The power-delivery network (PDN) in between the voltage regulator and the load greatly impacts the ability of the regulator to source current. A PDN is a combination of passive components (typically capacitors) and the routes (the metal layers and vias) connecting the output of the voltage regulator to the input of the load. It can be represented by a circuit of parasitic resistive, capacitive, and inductive components.