Power management ICs cut active and sleep current by 50%

By Gina Roos, editor-in-chief

Designed as dedicated companion chips for EFR32 wireless devices  and EFM32 microcontrollers  (MCUs), the EFP01 power management IC (PMIC) family  from Silicon Labs delivers improved energy efficiency for battery-powered applications, including IoT sensors, asset tags, smart meters, home and building automation, security, and health and wellness products. Addressing low-power requirements of IoT designs, the EFP01 reduces active and sleep current by up to 50%, increases power conversion efficiency, and extends battery life.

The PMICs help developers choose the optimal battery type and chemistries for their applications while controlling a product’s power supply over multiple output rails and voltages, said Silicon Labs.

The PMICs simplify power system design and reduce power consumption thanks to their enhanced control. They include low-voltage DC/DC converters and regulators along with a flexible mechanism to manage the power rails in a system design.

Silicon Labs also makes it easier to configure a low-power wireless solution with the new PMIC family by providing a turnkey power management companion solution for the Wireless Gecko SoCs and MCUs. The Simplicity Studio tools include reference designs, sample applications, and energy profiler and network analyzer tools.

Key features include:

• A wide input voltage range (0.8 V to 5.5 V) supports an array of batteries, and wide output voltages support a variety of peripherals, MCUs, and radios.
• The PMICs enable buck and boost voltage conversion as well as combined boost and buck (“boost bootstrap”), supporting low-voltage, high-current rails for IoT products requiring coin-cell batteries and higher transmit power (up to +20 dBm).
• Multiple output power rails allow an entire IoT product to be powered by one PMIC, using less board real estate and simplifying software/hardware design.
• Offers low quiescent current as low as 150 nA to reduce sleep current and enhance battery life.
• Supports coulomb counting (a feature offered by few PMIC solutions, according to the company), offering vital information for battery life estimation and preventive maintenance.

Samples and production quantities of EFP01 PMICs in a 3 × 3-mm QFN20 package are available now, with prices starting at $0.55 (USD MSRP) in quantities of 10,000. Three development boards are available, including the SLWRB4179B radio board priced at $39 (USD MSRP) and two PMIC evaluation boards each priced at $49 (USD MSRP). Visit silabs.com/efp01 to order PMIC samples and boards.