Power Design Tips: How to design a good enterprise-class SSD power management solution? Qorvo experts have something to say

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Power Design Tips: How to design a good enterprise-class SSD power management solution? Qorvo experts have something to say [Copy link]

Figure: Comparison of enterprise-level SSD and consumer-level SSD shipments from 2022 to 2028

(Image source: Yole Intelligence)

Compared with consumer-grade SSDs, enterprise-grade SSDs not only adopt new technologies faster, but also have stricter product design requirements, generally including high reliability, high IOPS, high energy efficiency, data backup, and miniaturization. The realization of these functions not only depends on the quality of the original storage particles, but also poses a great challenge to the power management solution of eSSD. Recently, at the China Power Electronics Industry Conference (Shanghai Station), Qorvo PMIC Product Line Application Manager Zhang Junyue introduced Qorvo's highly integrated power solution for enterprise-grade SSDs to the audience, helping customers calmly respond to the new needs of global enterprise-grade SSD development.

Figure: Qorvo PMIC Product Line Application Manager Zhang Junyue delivered a speech

Designing an eSSD power management solution

What should be considered?

"Enterprise-class SSDs have put forward new requirements for power capacity, stability, power environment noise, etc. Under such market development trends, the corresponding power management solutions must also achieve high integration and provide corresponding functions." Zhang Junyue said: "For example, in terms of high reliability , Qorvo power management solutions support a series of related functions, including ADC monitoring of key signals (based on ACT85410), hot-swap surge control, eFuse, boost and buck UV/OV/OC protection, thermal protection, power-off protection, and hierarchical protection mechanisms, etc."

For the data backup function that is "just needed" for enterprise-level SSDs , the Qorvo power management solution integrates an integrated power-loss protection (PLP) module for critical data backup. Compared with traditional power-loss protection circuits, it is more flexible and has significant advantages in cost and volume. For example, the volume of the storage capacitor alone can be reduced by at least 14.5%, and the cost can be reduced by 70%. The Qorvo solution also provides a dedicated power-loss protection pin for timely alarms; when the input end loses power abnormally, the chip can set the PLI signal low, thereby prompting the main control SoC chip to start the data backup function. In addition to timely alarms, the Qorvo solution also provides long-term early warning capabilities by integrating the reading function of the capacitor capacity and realizing real-time monitoring. When the capacitor capacity is found to be insufficient, engineers can intervene to replace the capacitor to ensure that there is enough power to support data backup.

In addition, Qorvo has also invested huge R&D resources in miniaturization , such as the above-mentioned PLP module. Qorvo's PMIC chip has the advantage of high integration with leading performance. Taking ACT88329 as an example, it integrates a series of functions such as timing control, LDO, Switch, RESET IC, etc. Through the comparison in the figure below, we can see that the circuit design based on ACT88329 has many advantages: the overall layout area is reduced by 80%, and the number of peripheral devices is reduced from 57 to 14, which greatly reduces the BOM cost.

Figure: Qorvo PMIC can help achieve smaller PCB design and fewer components

Building an ideal solution with a “building blocks” approach

Qorvo ActivePMU series is launched!

Currently, Qorvo provides PLP, PMIC chips and integrated PMIC+PLP solutions for enterprise-level SSD applications, and has created a rich ActivePMU series product portfolio. Zhang Junyue said: " Depending on the different operating voltage ranges, number of power rails, GPIOs, etc., the Qorvo ActivePMU series can support the creation of flexible and reliable power management solutions. These product combinations are like building blocks, tailored for eSSDs. Customers can select the building blocks that meet their requirements from the list to quickly build an ideal solution."

Figure: Qorvo power product types for enterprise-class SSDs

Starting from the case, the figure below shows the common power architecture of enterprise-level SSDs. On the right are the SSD Controller, DDR and NAND Flash, a total of 13 power rails. By cascading the two chips Qorvo ACT85410 and ACT88420, it is easy to control each power rail, including different voltage and current sizes. Since PMIC integrates multiple functions such as power-off protection, the circuit design is very simple and clear. In addition, for developers, on the one hand, Qorvo PMIC chips can set different functions through various registers to achieve flexible configuration; on the other hand, Qorvo has also launched a special burner tool and host computer software, including key parameters such as timing and voltage, which have been visualized, and developers can quickly get started debugging applications.

Figure: Example of eSSD power architecture based on Qorvo PMIC

In summary, Qorvo PMIC products integrate power conversion and intelligent management functions to help eliminate the need for external discrete components, which not only simplifies the power design process, but also greatly reduces system size and costs, helping customers accelerate time to market. These features can meet many requirements of enterprise-level SSD applications, so Qorvo PMIC has also been widely used on various processor platforms.