PMIC simplifies power supply design in automotive cameras

By Gina Roos, editor-in-chief

Renesas Electronics Corp. announced the introduction of the ISL78083 , a highly integrated power management IC (PMIC), at CES 2020. The integrated chip simplifies power supply design for use in multiple HD camera modules. Key advantages include reducing development cycles, bill of materials (BOM) cost, and supply chain risks.

The automotive camera PMIC accepts direct-from-battery (36- to 42-V) or power-over-coax (15- to 18-V) supply sources and supports output currents up to 750 mA per output. This power level offers plenty of headroom for existing image sensors up to 7 megapixels (MP) and future sensors with even higher resolution, said Renesas.

Supporting automotive surround-view camera systems, the four-channel ISL78083 automotive camera PMIC includes a primary high-voltage synchronous buck regulator, two secondary low-voltage synchronous buck regulators, and a low-dropout (LDO) voltage regulator. The three buck regulators provide programmable output ranges from 1 V to 5.05 V, and the LDO supports 2.8 V to 3.4 V.

Thanks to the high integration (integrated feedback and compensation), the only external components needed to complete the high-efficiency power supply is the output inductor and capacitors. As a result, the ISL78083 minimizes BOM cost, requiring seven to 10 fewer external components compared to competing solutions, according to Renesas.

The PMIC’s 2.2-MHz switching frequency avoids AM band interference and shrinks the required output capacitance and inductance. The device is AEC-Q100 Grade-1–qualified for ambient operation from –40°C to 125°C and junction temperature from –40°C to 150°C.

Other features include four overvoltage (OV) and four undervoltage (UV) monitors, three power-good indicators, and a reset output/fault indicator. A second reference is supplied for the OV/UV monitors. An optional spread-spectrum feature addresses EMC/EMI interference.

The ISL78083 automotive camera PMIC (4 × 4-mm, 24-lead SCQFN wettable flank package) is available in volume production. An evaluation board is available.