New Samsung PMICs Target DDR5 Performance

The power management ICs are designed for data center, server and desktop applications.

(Image source: Samsung.)

(Image source: Samsung.)

Samsung Electronics has unveiled three new power management integrated circuits (PMICs)—the S2FPD01, S2FPD02, and S2FPC01—designed to improve memory performance for highly demanding, memory-intensive applications such as data centers, enterprise servers, and PC applications. Each of the PMICs has low output ripple voltage and high power efficiency.  

The market regularly offers advanced new CPUs with more cores, better performance per core, and higher power efficiency. These advanced chips require high dynamic RAM (DRAM) capacity and high bandwidth. Samsung’s new PMICs are the industry’s first for the fifth-generation double data rate (DDR5) dual in-line memory module (DIMM), according to the company. These PMICs have very high energy efficiency (more than 90 percent), which reduces heating of the memory module.

PMICs, also known as power management units (PMUs), are integrated circuits that control electrical power flow. The circuits may have many different functions, such as DC/DC conversion, battery charging, power source selection, voltage scaling, and power sequencing. The new PMICs provide smart voltage regulation for DDR5 modules.

Samsung’s new PMICs are integrated into the memory module, which offers more reliable and stable performance than if the PMIC is on the system’s motherboard. This improvement provides better compatibility and signal integrity, enables better power regulation, and simplifies motherboard design. Instead of a linear regulator, the new PMICs use a high-efficiency hybrid gate driver and are equipped with Samsung’s proprietary control design (asynchronous-based dual-phase buck control scheme). The hybrid gate drivers use high-speed optocouplers for control signal isolation, providing fully isolated control power for each driving channel. The control scheme reduces the DC voltage with a fast transient response to output current changes, regulating its output voltage to be a constant value. By using both pulse width and pulse frequency modulation methods, the control scheme also prevents delays and issues when switching modes. The high-efficiency hybrid gate driver enables the PMICs to operate with high efficiency—up to 91 percent.

Samsung’s new PMICs. (Image source: Samsung.)

Samsung’s new PMICs. (Image source: Samsung.)

The Samsung S2FPD01 and S2FPD02 are designed for data center and enterprise servers that have high technical requirements for real-time processing of various computing tasks. The S2FPD01 is designed for use in modules with low density, while the S2FPD02 is designed for higher density applications. The third PMIC model, the S2FPC01, is designed for use in desktops or laptops and has a small package (designed on a 90 nm process node) to provide more agile performance. All three new Samsung’s PMICs are currently being sampled to customers.