UTAC, Sarda and AT&S Collaborate on datacentre Voltage Regulators
Sarda Technologies, a US power management component supplier and UTAC Holdings, an Asian semiconductor assembly and test services provider, have announced that Sarda will implement its Heterogeneous Integrated Power Stage (HIPS) in UTAC's 3D system-in-package (3D SiP) based on ECP technology from Austrian high-end PCB firm AT&S. The aim is to improve datacentre energy efficiency.
Designed to address the rapidly escalating power consumption in datacentres, Sarda's HIPS replaces silicon switches with GaAs in voltage regulators that increase switching frequency by ten times, improve transient response by 5 times and reduce size by 80 percent. With these fast, small voltage regulators, it enables granular power delivery to reduce data center power consumption by 30 percent.
The collaboration was announced at the International Symposium on 3D Power Electronics, Integration and Manufacturing Symposium (www.3D-PEIM.org) in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
"UTAC's 3D SiP enables Sarda to integrate GaAs switches, silicon driver and passive components in a compact, low-profile package that minimis es parasitics for efficient, high speed operation," said Bob Conner, CEO and co-founder of Sarda. "UTAC's collaboration with AT&S also provides a full turnkey supply chain assembly and test flow with much needed alignment of roadmaps as well as design rules for 3D SiP solutions with embedded chip in substrate technology."
"System manufacturers are moving from use of discrete components to highly integrated power management solutions to improve power density and energy efficiency. UTAC is very excited in working closely with Sarda and AT&S to demonstrate the benefits of using 3D SiP to reduce footprint and improve electrical and thermal performance," said Lee Smith, VP of UTAC's advanced package product line.
"Our collaboration with UTAC maximises the benefits of utilising AT&S' ECP technology for the Sarda HIPS Solution", stated Michael Lang, CEO of advanced packaging at AT&S. "The major ECP advantages compared to standard IC packaging and PCB assembly include a significant form factor reduction, higher reliability, improved thermal management and a fast and easy system integration with high efficiency."
Servers, routers and communications systems require new power management technology to keep up with the growth in data consumption and mobile connectivity. But power delivery and heat removal issues constrain system performance. Moreover, each system board uses dozens of voltage regulators which consume precious board space.
Small, fast voltage regulators enable granular power, which reduces system power consumption through dynamic power management of each load. Miniaturising the voltage regulators also frees up board space for more processors and memory to increase system performance. Increasing system performance-per-watt decreases the system cost-per-workload.
