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HFE0809 Tutorial

power management

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53 views

HFE0809 Tutorial

power management

Uploaded by

arunkr1
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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From August 2009 High Frequency Electronics

Copyright 2009 Summit Technical Media, LLC

High Frequency Design

POWER MANAGEMENT

Power Management Issues


in High Frequency
Circuits and Systems
By Gary Breed
Editorial Director

ower management
is often the responsibility of engineers other than the high
frequency specialists in a
products design team.
But since it is such an
important part of the
overall designespecially in portable wireless
devicesevery member of the team should
understand the issues involved. There will be
specific requirements for each engineers piece
of the overall design, but it is also important
that the team understands the overall powerrelated set of objectives.
The major areas of power management
include the following:

This tutorial reviews the


primary areas where power
management is essential to
achieve the best systemwide performance in high
frequency products

Power supply
Internal power distribution
Power quality (noise, transients, etc.)
Power consumption
Thermal power dissipation
There may be other issues, depending on
the application, but these are the most important. Although Ill look at each area individually, remember that there are many ways that
they overlap.

power into the unit, creating the potential for


50/60 Hz energy (and harmonics) getting into
the signal path. External power supplies,
especially pre-packaged OEM assemblies,
may result in an engineer taking for granted
the issues of supply regulation, noise and protection circuitry. External supplies also add
the issue of connection method. Maintenance
and reliability requirements will determine
whether an external power supply uses such
connections as screw terminals, specialized
power connectors, or simpler common power
plug-and-jack combinations.
Battery power adds the requirement for
charging circuitry as well as battery condition
monitoring. Each battery chemistry (leadacid, NiCd, NiMH, Li-ion, etc.) has unique
characteristics regarding charge and discharge rate, temperature (both environmental
and internally-generated), and number of
charging cycles.
Central power sources, which were once
standard in all remote telephone and
microwave repeater facilities, are again
receiving attention, particularly in remote
sites with alternative-energy power (mainly
solar). A key issue is the high current capability of the battery or AC power supply, which
requires mechanical protection of the distribution buses.

Power Supplies
Power supply options are widely varied:
internal or external power supply modules,
batteries using several different chemistries,
and perhaps a central power bus, such as a
battery bank at a remote communications site.
Each type of power source has a different set
of design requirements. For example:
Internal power supplies bring AC mains

Internal Power Distribution


After the power supply is established, DC
power must be routed to the various portion of
the system. This may be as simple as the wires
that carry 12 VDC and +5 VDC to all the
components inside a personal computer, or as
complicated as power-over coax to tower-top
mounted electronics.
August 2009

49

High Frequency Design

POWER MANAGEMENT
Within an enclosure or across a large printed circuit
board, choices may include single-voltage power, multiple
voltage distribution, or a system of sub-regulators and
DC-DC converters to deliver the required power to each
local portion of the system.
The physical method of distribution is another design
choice and can affect other aspects of performance. Cables
and connectors are simple to implement and have the
advantage of separating power distribution and signal
paths. But they require that the enclosure have sufficient
volume. In more restricted spaces, power may be distributed via the PCB, most commonly as a separate copper layer, isolated from adjacent signal layers by ground
planes.
In addition to delivering power to the operating circuitry, there are often external accessories to consider.
Standard plug-in connectors are easily implemented, but
the more flexible Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) and USB
must include consideration of the effects of cable length,
voltage drop and the issues discussed in the next section.

Power Quality (Noise, Transients, etc.)


This part of power management is squarely in the
high frequency designers realm. Preventing the power
supply circuitry from degrading the signal path is a major
issue at high frequencies. At short wavelengths, coupling
is much stronger between PCB traces and components
than it is at longer, lower frequency wavelengths.
Reducing that coupling to and from power distribution
requires good high frequency practices that are more
closely related to signals than power supplies.
Since the purpose of this tutorial is to identify the
issues, not to solve all of them, well just list the major
areas of concern:
Proper bypassing/decoupling of power to IC pins
Routing of power traces in isolated PCB layers
Avoiding transients caused by high-current on/off
transitions in other parts of the system
Coupling/crosstalk from signal lines into power
lines, which may then be propagated to undesirable
portions of the circuit
Minimizing DC shifts due to digital transitions, then
preventing coupling of any remaining energy into
other parts of the system
Separation of analog and digital power (and ground)
Special attention to primary and bias power connections to RF/microwave devices
Proper regulation to avoid secondary modulation of
the DC as RF power output fluctuates with signal
modulation
Troubleshooting power circuitry along with all other
portions of a system during regulatory EMC compliance testing
50

High Frequency Electronics

Overall, power quality should be viewed as involving


separation between sections of a larger system.

Power Consumption
In portable electronics, battery lifetime is paramount.
Consumers must be happy with the performance of the
device, which will not be the case if they must recharge
the batteries too often. As a result, power consumption
management requires a combination of techniques and
design choices.
The first is simply using components that consume
less power. Changing from a standard of 5 volts to 3.3
volts was a major step. Now we have lower voltage
devices, which generally consume less power. Mainly,
these are small-signal and digital baseband devices. Also,
voltage regulators and DC-DC converters should operate
as efficiently as possible, both in their conversion efficiency and control circuit power consumption.
Unfortunately, many wireless devices are modulated
with complex signals that require high linearity. Power
amplifier efficiency is much less when operated in the linear region. Since PAs are among the highest power portions of a wireless system, much attention has been given
to design methods that improve efficiency by allowing a
PA to operate closer to its saturation power, where it is
more efficient. To compensate for the increasing non-linearity, designers may choose from various feedback and
feed-forward schemes, as well as digital predistortion
methods. More complex architectures such as Doherty
amplifiers and polar modulation are additional options.
A key technique is a power-down or sleep mode for
portions of the circuit, nearly eliminating their power consumption during times they are not used. In some cases,
these times may be very short, such as the pauses in
speech or during transmit/receive modes in a TDMA system. These small savings can accumulate, becoming a significant savings.

Thermal Power Dissipation


Thermal power is closely related to DC power consumption. Any greater efficiency will result in less generated heat. In handsets and other portable devices, total
power is low, but excess heat must be managed carefully.
Even low power devices create heat, and within a very
small area, power density can create an unwanted temperature rise.
Finally, the biggest thermal power problem area is
high power equipment, including base stations and
switching centers. For these systems, there is usually a
set of tradeoffs among reduced power consumption, heat
flow management, and active cooling, either by ventilation or air conditioning. Designers must balance equipment performance, available space, local environmental
conditions and other factors to get the best results.

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