Power Product of the Year
Company Name: Microchip Technology
Product Name: MCP16701 PMIC
Supporting Statement:
The rapid rise of high-performance AI infrastructure is reshaping power delivery requirements across data centres, industrial computing and intelligent edge systems. This is leading designers to be under increasing pressure to deliver greater performance, efficiency and power density within constrained footprints. Addressing these demands requires advanced power management solutions capable of supporting increasingly complex MPU and FPGA architectures. Microchip Technology’s MCP16701 Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC) has been developed specifically to meet these requirements. The device combines exceptional integration, space and component reduction along with precise power control and support for next-generation AI and high-performance computing applications.
The MCP16701 integrates eight 1.5A buck converters that can be paralleled, four 300 mA internal Low Dropout Voltage Regulators (LDOs) and a controller to drive external MOSFETs. This results in a solution that occupies up to 48% less board space with around 60% of the component count of a discrete device-based approach. The device’s space saving credentials are further enhanced by its 8 mm x 8 mm footprint in VQFN package.
In addition, to setting new benchmarks in terms of integration, another key feature of the MCP16701 is its flexibility. This is best illustrated by its ability to dynamically change Vout levels for all converters in 12.5 mV/25 mV increments. This allows designers to easily fine-tune power delivery to meet specific application requirements, helping enhance overall system efficiency and performance.
Amongst other features, a dedicated pin (LPM) facilitates the transition to Low-Power modes and the implementation of Backup mode with DDR in self-refresh (Hibernate mode). The MCP16701 features a low no-load operational quiescent current and draws less than 10 μA in full shutdown, a valuable feature in many applications where power budgets are constrained. Active discharge resistors are provided on each output, and buck channels support safe start-up into pre-biased outputs. The MCP16701 also features an I2C communication interface to simplify and enhance communication efficiency between the PMIC and other system components.
The PMIC meets diverse power needs and supports Microchip’s PIC64-GX MPU and PolarFire® FPGAs with a configurable feature set. It is supported by the EV23P28A Evaluation Board and GUI to help developers evaluate and expedite development of their designs.
In summary, the MCP16701 delivers:
• Highly integrated: PMIC combining eight buck converters, four LDOs and external MOSFET control in a single device
• Space saving: Delivers up to 48% board area reduction and requires less than 60% of the component count of discrete alternatives
• High performance design: Specifically for high-performance AI, industrial computing and data centre applications
• Multi platform: Supports advanced MPU and FPGA platforms including Microchip’s PIC64-GX MPU and PolarFire® FPGA families
• Dynamic power: Enables highly precise and dynamic voltage adjustment in 12.5 mV/25 mV increments for optimised power delivery
Entry ID: 7471
