Dc/dc converter modules of nonstandard sizes are increasingly being marketed as workable, and even superior, solutions to the traditional quarter- and half-bricks that have served so well for so long in general board applications. This mild assault on style is the closest thing we generally see to a war of products in the usually friendly power arena.

It's clear that these normally smaller modules are fashioning some elbow room for themselves very quickly. Ultimately, they will succeed, because the universal byword today is downsizing, though, for power, that generally implies "without loss of any capability whatsoever."

The driving forces include the usual higher-density requirements and distributed power, as power requirements rise and vendors refuse to back off on compromising system functionality. But more recently, it's also come to signify a focused mandate on curbing heat and making modules light enough to surface-mount.

The first nonstandard-size dc/dc converters several years back were actually quite large but also remarkably light. That was the tip-off that manufacturers were moving into fertile ground: new packaging techniques tied in with thermal issues, planar magnetics and materials technology.

Advances have come quickly. Just last year, the idea of a 50-watt surface-mounted dc/dc converter seemed incredible. More recently, the multichip-module approach to dc/dc converters has arrived.

Innovation is not restricted to nonbrick designs. We've recently seen a light quarter-brick containing two independent converters that provides a total of 100 W.

Some companies are making other types of bricks-perhaps not marketed that way but from a neutral view bricks nonetheless, albeit smaller than their predecessors.

Where it's going exactly I cannot say, but it does appear dc/dc converters soon will embrace yet newer design paradigms.

Most recently, I saw a supply designed from the ground up specifically from thermal, not power-delivery, considerations, and wondered why that approach took so long to arrive.

Designing from that vantage point might be the key to a lot of future successful designs. I doubt it will immediately affect the higher-power three-quarter bricks (of which I hear very little) or full bricks, but one never knows.

Surprises come in every field, even power.

http://www.eetimes.com/