Keeping Power Integrity a Priority With the Right Capacitor - News

Recently, NVIDIA encountered power integrity (PI) issues on its latest external graphics card (AIC), which resulted in abnormal behavior, such as desktop crashes. 

According to TechPowerUP, the root cause of these problems seems to be

. Various vendors with unique hardware designs are responsible for NVIDIA's RTX series.  

This basic failure proves that some of the most basic components are crucial in circuit design. In this article, we will review the importance of power integrity in high-speed design,

, And the recent capacitors on the market, these capacitors can alleviate the supply chain shortage of passive components. 

Power integrity fundamentally involves maintaining the voltage specification that is assigned to the power rail (VDD / VSS) of the load device under constantly changing current demand.

The power transmission network (PDN) includes a voltage regulator module, the resistance and inductance of the actual capacitor (that is, with inherent parasitic parameters), and other PCB components. The elements of PDN depend on frequency and must be considered during design.

The digital system is nominally a square wave pulse switch with a fast but finite rise time. according to

,

. The higher frequency of these pulses will affect the total impedance of the PDN.

The capacitor has a lower impedance that increases with frequency and offsets the inductive rise in impedance, which helps maintain a stable voltage rail. 

PI expert Istvan Novak spoke with Judy Warner of the Altium OnTrack podcast in July. He discussed how engineers are facing increasing power integrity issues and how to solve them

. 

The recent troubles that NVIDIA AIC manufacturers have encountered seem to echo Istvan's concerns about "power integrity is an afterthought."

Whether your design includes capacitors that provide DC modules for automotive radio equipment or for power integrity considerations, there are many key parameters that affect capacitor selection, including:

In addition, optimizing the number and types of capacitors required for PDN is a key design decision. 

The following manufacturers are providing various capacitors to meet the needs of designers.

New Yorker Electronics recently reported on the release

Targeting the aerospace, military and oil/gas industries. These new film capacitors (capacity 0.22 uF to 1.0 uF) have a threshold voltage that can handle up to 800 V and a temperature range of -55.0°C to +200°C, making them a useful choice for harsh working environments.

TDK also announced

, Its capacity is 22 uF. These devices are said to meet the high-reliability stress test standards of the AEC-Q200 automotive standard, and their dimensions can provide a very competitive capacitance to board density ratio.

Finally, KEMET revealed

The company claims that its volume is 60% smaller than the X2 film capacitors currently on the market.

X2 capacitors are a type of safety capacitors, which are connected by bridge wires to wires to provide voltage stability under changing load conditions. They are designed to operate in environments that must meet strict safety considerations. The overview of these capacitors is a feature of the AAC technology profile

.

In addition to reducing the size, the package size (22 uF) of KEMET X2 safety capacitors has a larger capacitance value, which is suitable for long-life conditions in harsh environments. KEMET says they solve the “size, capacitance, and reliability challenges faced by design engineers across multiple industries.”

Graham Scott, Vice President of Purchasing at Jabil, wrote that at present, “many suppliers are

. "However, these new news indicate that the ongoing drought in the passive supply chain may be ending.

Capacitors are a hot topic in 2020 because manufacturers have released new passive devices that can work under harsh conditions. Extreme high and low temperatures will test the durability of electronic systems. The continuous improvement of MLCC capacity also means that more capacitors can be packaged into a smaller footprint on the PCB, thereby providing additional system reliability.

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