Eddie Beville
Linear Technology

Advancements in board assembly, PCB layout and digital IC integration have produced a new generation of densely populated, high performance systems. The board-mounted point-of-load (POL) DC/DC power supplies in these systems are subject to the same demanding size, high power and performance requirements as other subsystems, making it difficult to meet the rigorous new POL demands with traditional controller or regulator ICs, or power modules.

For such demanding applications, an ideal POL power supply must meet high performance specifications while simplifying board assembly—mounting similar to other surface mount ICs on the board without requiring special tooling. Such POL DC/DC regulators must also demonstrate exceptional thermal performance with innovative packaging technology. Power density increases without the danger of overheating and shortened device life. This design note introduces the 4600 μModule, which does all of these things.