Integrate magnetics make 6A dc-dc as small as a rice grain

Texas Instruments has used integrated moulded magnetics to shrink the size of six multi-amp dc-dc converters – five buck types and one boost.

The shrunk versions are branded ‘MagPack’ by the company, which will not reveal details of the construction except to say that the control IC and inductor coil are stacked before magnetic material for the inductor is over-moulded to double as the device’s package – adding that this material is a “proprietary, newly engineered material” and “the team used a neural network-based approach to optimise the inductor to specifications, and the 3D package molding process enabled the team to utilise the maximum height, weight and depth of the MagPack package,” it said.

Device	Input	Module description	Smallest package
TPSM82866A	2.4 to 5.5V	6A step-down integrated inductor 13 fixed Vout options	2.3 x 3mm
TPSM82866C	2.4 to 5.5V	6A step-down integrated inductor I²C interface	2.3 x 3mm
TPSM828303	2.25 to 5.5V	3A step-down integrated inductor noise-filtering capacitors	2.5 x 2.6mm
TPSM82816	2.7 to 6V	6A step-down adjustable frequency and synchronisation	2.5 x 3mm
TPSM82813	2.75 to 6V	3A step-down adjustable frequency and synchronisation	2.5 x 3mm
TPSM81033	1.8 to 5.5V	5.5V 5.5A boost valley current limit power good output discharge pulse-frequency and pulse-width modulation	2.5 x 2.6mm

“Three of the six new devices, the TPSM82866A (left), TPSM82866C and TPSM82816, are the industry’s smallest 6A power modules, supplying nearly 1A per 1mm2,” claimed the company.

Picking the TPSM82866A, it can be fed from 2.4 to 5.5V and output from 600mV to the input voltage. Output current is up to 6A (TPSM82864A is a 4A version).

TPSM82866A output current

The MagPack versions measure 2.3 x 3 x 1.95mm and have a 200nH inductor. Operation is at 1.2MHz of 2.4MHz according to version.

Pre-MagPack versions have a 3.2 x 4mm footprint and either are 1.4 or 1.8mm tall.

TPSM82866A block diagram

The construction is nominally shielded.

“This is not just a shielded inductor,” said TI. “The entire die, the inductor, the switching node – all are enclosed in a shielded package. Compared with pre-MagPack types “peak emissions are reduced by about 2dB in the horizontal polarization and 8dB in the vertical polarization”.

Find the TPSM82866A product page here