It's common for distributors that are chasing technology products to be called on early in the design process to identify IC designs, particularly for ASICs or FPGAs. But lately, distributors have also begun to help design engineers choose the right power solution for the application. That means that the design of power supplies is being examined earlier in the process, a refreshing change in an industry that historically saves that task till last, never allocating enough space for the power supply.
Power specialists can provide OEMs with a wealth of information about what's available in power-solution formats. And by discussing their specs, distributors can help them choose the right power source.
A number of distributors specialize in power sources and back up their line cards with engineering support. Some power specialists offer regional technical or design centers with on-staff power specialists and field application engineers who can travel to the customer location.
In many cases, distributors have the most up-to-date information on new products, including high-efficiency, high-current dc/dc converters and modular power supplies-two big areas in the power supply market today.
A major benefit of bringing in distribution early in the design process is to shorten time-to-market. During discussions with their customers on specific power needs, distributors often talk to engineers about different and creative ways to fulfill their power requirements based on their planned time-to-market, cost and technical specs. The challenge is that there are a variety of power supply choices available, including custom designs, multiple single-output power solutions, modular power supplies or distributed-power architectures with dc/dc converters.
Sometimes the choice isn't strictly technical. Because of time-to-market issues many customers, for example, need to move to modular power supplies because they offer a lot of choices if voltages and currents change by the end of the design process. By stocking modules and chassis, distributors can typically turn around small quantities of prototype assemblies in less than a week. Distributors are also working with suppliers in developing tools for power supply design (see related story, page 132).
This is a win-win situation for all parties. The distributor can typically earn a higher margin by providing complete design, assembly and test services and the OEM engineers get access to power specialists who can educate them on what solutions are available and help them choose the right one.
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