RFMW Expert Product Pick: pSemi FlexiBK PE24110 Ultra-high Efficiency Two-stage Buck Regulator

I chose the pSemi FlexiBK™ PE24110 Two-stage Buck Regulator because its proprietary two-stage architecture produces ultra-high efficiency and reduces the inductance required for high-current, low-voltage power conversion. This gives designers an effective way to achieve high efficiency while minimizing solution footprint and profile. The PE24110 is designed for low-profile point-of-load (POL) regulation in optical modules, ASIC and FPGA core supplies, and other space-constrained systems operating from a nominal 3.3V bus. These applications can present a difficult combination of high current demand, very low core voltages, tight regulation requirements, limited board area, and stringent component-height restrictions. At these voltage and current levels, even relatively small conduction and switching losses can have a significant effect on conversion efficiency and thermal performance.

What I am impressed with is how pSemi addresses those constraints architecturally. Rather than relying on a conventional single-stage buck topology, the PE24110 combines a two-phase interleaved charge pump followed by an interleaved buck regulator stage. By reducing the voltage presented to the buck stage, this approach reduces the volt-seconds across its inductors and greatly reduces the inductance required for efficient conversion. That is especially valuable in optical modules and other height-constrained designs, where the magnetics can become one of the dominant factors determining solution size and profile.

The PE24110 uses a 3.0V to 3.6V input and delivers up to 12A at an adjustable 0.35V to 0.7V output, with peak efficiency up to 89%. Output regulation accuracy is better than ±1% across line and load variations, helping designers maintain tight low-voltage rails for sensitive ASIC and FPGA cores. The output is programmed using external feedback resistors and can also be adjusted through an external adaptive voltage scaling (AVS) DAC. For applications requiring additional current, designers can parallel as many as four PE24110 devices, which gives the ability to scale the two-stage architecture to higher-current rails.