Energy-Harvesting ICs Supply All System Voltages Directly From Transducers

 By Don Tuite, Analog & Power Editor

Linear Technology has entered the energy-harvesting business with two chips, the LTC3180 step-up converter/power manager and the LTC3855-1 power supply for piezoelectric vibrating-beam energy harvesters. The transducer-specific LTC3588 incorporates design features of the general-purpose LC3180, adapting circuitry expressly for piezoelectric harvesters.

Scalable Output Power Approach Saves Time-To-Market In Audio Amplifier Design

 By Manuel Rodriguez, Jun Honda, and Wenduo Liu, International Rectifier

Employing a common base circuit, a single class D audio amplifier design platform with scalable output power can generate multiple power levels up to 500 W, enabling designers to unify Class D audio designs for numerous products. A single design platform that features scalable output audio power, then, can simplify a designer's job, resulting in faster turnaround of the amplifier with fewer components.

Aluminum Cap Series Adds Large Case Sizes

Enabling high capacitance/voltage combinations from 1 F at 25 V to 10,000 µF at 450 V, the 101/102 PHR-ST screw-terminal power aluminum capacitors from Vishay Intertechnology now include larger 90- by 146-mm, 76- by 220-mm, and 90- by 220-mm case sizes and 13-mm terminals.

12-V Dual-Channel Buck Converter Integrates MOSFETs

Forecasting 35% worth of board-space savings, the TPS54290 Swift 12-V synchronous dual buck converter from Texas Instruments supports inputs ranging from 4.5 to 18 V and delivers output voltages as low as 0.8 V with a 90% efficiency.

DAC Sets Low-Power Record

Promising significantly longer playback time in portables, the WM8912 digital-to-analog converter (DAC) from Wolfson Microelectronics exploits a unique low-power DAC capacitor switching architecture that enables a DAC to headphone power consumption of less than 4 mW.

Power Modules Speed Products To Market

Promoting ease of use, the first three members of the LMZ-series Simple Switcher power module family from National Semiconductor promises to help system designers get their products to market faster. They offer the efficiency of a synchronous switching regulator with the simplicity of a linear regulator, eliminating the external inductor and layout challenges common to switching-regulator designs.