This proliferation of functionally-integrated hardware solutions can be seen as an inflection point in the power supply industry which is seeing a dramatic move away from traditional power supply manufacturing (with a focus on the assembly of power supply modules or bricks from discrete components) to an increasing emphasis on power supply products deriving directly from semiconductor and microelectronics products and technologies.

A major challenge to the further miniaturization of DC-DC converters is the inability to integrate passive components on silicon due to their relatively large size at today’s operating frequencies of 0.5 to 5 MHz. Increasing the switching frequencies into the 10’s of MHz region offers the potential for the reduction of passive component values to the point where, with the right technology, their size becomes compatible with silicon device dimensions.

Currently, significant R&D activity is evident in both academia and industry into advances in semiconductor, magnetic, capacitor and packaging materials and technologies that will deliver products operating at multi-MHz frequencies. The ultimate target is to develop new miniaturized product formats that can be referred to as power supply-in-package (PSiP) and power supply-on-chip (PwrSoC).

This concept of integrated power solutions presents a significant disruptive opportunity in power management solutions and warrants an international forum for its discussion and for the elucidation of the key challenges that lie ahead.

The first International Workshop on Power Supply on Chip will bring together the key players in both the industry and academic communities active in this emerging area. Issues to be addressed include the following:

Register now for the First International Workshop on Power Supply on Chip -
September 22nd - 24th, 2008 - Cork, Ireland

It is expected that about 50 to 100 leading academic and industry experts will attend and the workshop format will present an informal forum for the presentation and discussion of up-to-date trends, results, opportunities and challenges. Most importantly, the workshop format will not require speakers to prepare technical papers, enabling a more open forum for the presentation of state-of-the-art results and data.

To register or find out further details on this workshop go to http://www.powersoc.org.

Workshop sponsors:

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