Today, STMicroElectronics is partnering with Compuware to develop a server power supply reference design using ST's SiC, galvanic isolation, and MCU technologies.
STMicroelectronics is working with Compuware Technology Inc. to develop a server power supply reference design leveraging ST's silicon carbide (SiC), galvanic isolation, and microcontroller (MCU) technologies. This reference design provides unmatched power options for digital power converter applications, including server, data center, and telecom power supplies.
Driven by artificial intelligence (AI), 5G, and the Internet of Things (IoT), the demand for digital services continues to grow, and controlling power use is an important part of solving data center sustainability challenges, according to Compuware Technology Inc. The STDES-3KWTLCP reference design is ideal for CRPS (General Redundant Power Supply) server power supplies of 3kW and beyond. This technological advancement has resulted in superior efficiency, faster switching, less energy loss, and better thermal management. In addition, this turnkey system solution reduces time-to-market.
Compuware is a global leader in power supplies, holding the world record for the highest number of 80 PLUS Titanium certifications, ensuring unmatched power efficiency. Compuware power solutions are designed for excellence and are ideal for HPC, AI, deep learning, cloud, and advanced applications. Its high power density optimizes space usage without compromising reliability and efficiency, setting a new standard for performance in demanding computing environments.
"Combining ST's latest SiC MOSFET, galvanic isolation and microcontroller technologies with Compuware's leading power and energy expertise helps Compuware unleash our design creativity to develop high-density and high-efficiency solutions. We can now achieve a power density of 89W/in 3, a small form factor, and a high power output, making this reference design an excellent choice for power-hungry, high-performance computing applications. Robin Cheng, Vice President of Compuware, said.
"ST's Power & Energy Competence Center focuses on the industrial market, providing our customers with low-, medium- and high-power solutions with state-of-the-art ST technology, and this reference design, STDES-3KWTLCP, enables our customers to improve energy efficiency and reduce time-to-market with ST's efficient and reliable power solutions. Eric Chou, Head of STMicroelectronics' Power & Energy Competence Center, said.
The STDES-3KWTLCP is a 3kW AC-DC converter designed for 3kW telecom rectifier applications that require high efficiency across the entire workload range and the universal power supply input voltage range.
This reference design provides a path to an eventual compact solution with up to 40 W/in 3 power that is higher than existing power supplies while offering high peak efficiency of 96.3%, low THD distortion of less than 5% THD at full load, and lower power consumption. Bill of Materials.
The entire system consists of two power stages. The first is a bridgeless totem pole PFC controlled by the STM32G474RBT6, and the second is an isolated regulation stage, implemented through a full-bridge LLC network, with zero-voltage switching (ZVS) PWM and synchronous rectification, controlled by the STM32G474RBT6 second MCU.
The STDES-3KWTLCP is a fully assembled kit that enables users to design innovative topologies using the latest ST power kit devices: SiC MOSFETs, High Voltage MDmesh MOSFETs, STripFET MOSFETs, STGAP Isolated FET Drivers, and VIPer Converters.
The demand for silicon carbide for data center power supply is expected to increase
In recent years, the surge in AI computing power has not only brought pressure on the deployment of computing hardware, but also brought challenges to the power supply of data centers. At the current rate of computing power increase, if the power supply structure of the data center is not optimized, especially in the PSU power supply, then the shortage of advanced packaging and high-bandwidth memory may not be the first problem we face.
According to statistics, the global server power supply market will reach 31.6 billion yuan in 2025, of which the scale from the Chinese market will also reach 9.1 billion yuan. In the design scheme, the silicon solution is still dominant, but with the new/rebuilt data center, the power consumption of a single rack has risen sharply, taking a 6U AI server as an example, the average power of a single rack has reached 10.5kW, and the annual power consumption is about equal to the living electricity of 100 people, and it is urgent to replace the new server power supply design scheme.
In a previously published technical article, onsemi said that in order to meet the growing demand for power protection market, the new generation of UPS needs to have the following characteristics:
- More than 98% high energy efficiency, high power density, power factor > 0.99, transformerless design
- Higher output power: Large data centers have high requirements for UPS, and the bus voltage of a 3-phase output UPS is 800 V. Modular UPS is scalable, highly redundant, and can achieve a maximum output power of 100 kVA by connecting multiple products to meet the needs of large data centers
- 0 switching time: Compared to the 2 to 10 ms switching time of offline UPS, online UPS has 0 switching time to deal with urgent problems in various situations
- It has the ability to regulate the input voltage and optimize the output voltage to reduce the frequency of battery use, thereby increasing the use time and saving costs
- Excellent heat dissipation reduces the weight and cost of the heatsink itself, and has the ability to add additional power modules in a constrained space
In order to achieve these features, there are trade-offs to consider:
- Control the total cost of ownership (TCO), including the cost of production, transportation, installation and maintenance, as well as the cost of space to store equipment. Consideration needs to be given to how to reduce the space and weight of heatsinks, inductors, and electrolytic capacitors, as well as fans.
- UPS expandable, a huge advantage of modular UPS is that it can be expanded, when it is necessary to increase capacity, only need to add a power module, a module size and weight is small, even one person can complete the installation, greatly reducing the cost.
- With an online UPS, the online UPS can handle more input power quality issues than other types of UPS, reduce the frequency of battery use, and its high-frequency inverter can output a high-quality and high-efficiency sinusoidal signal to power the load.
- The impact of topology on system performance and energy efficiency, 3-level topologies are more efficient than 2-level topologies, at rated power, higher efficiency means smaller heat sinks and better reliability, and most importantly, the increase in the number of levels makes the voltage output closer to the sine wave, but complex control algorithms, more devices, and an increase in the number of switches will lead to increased costs, and designers need to make trade-offs between performance and price.
- SiC is used as a switching device. SiC can help revolutionarily optimize UPS design and meet the requirements of UPS miniaturization, high capacity, and high efficiency in the era of big data.
Huawei's 3000W GaN server power supply is based on Infineon's GaN switch for example. This is because with the release of open standards such as OCP 3.0 and ORV, there are requirements for rack designs such as high power density and effective and low-cost thermal management.
2000V SiC MOSFET / Infineon
As the power supply requirements for AI servers continue to increase, 3kW of system power will soon become a thing of the past. Taking NVIDIA's latest B200 AI GPU as an example, its power consumption reaches 1200W at full load, and the power consumption of DGX B200, an 8 GPU hardware platform, is as high as 14.3kW.
Since the cost of silicon carbide has not been reduced to the same level as gallium nitride or silicon devices, the current application in server power supply is mainly in medium and high-power modular UPS, which is not unrelated to the characteristics of the material itself. In terms of bandgap width, the gap between gallium nitride and silicon carbide is not large, but in terms of breakdown voltage, the breakdown voltage of 1700V of silicon carbide is much greater than that of gallium nitride's 650V.
Currently, in the range of 2 to 4kW, both GaN and SiC can meet the needs of server power supplies based on bridgeless PFC designs, and GaN also has a cost advantage. However, when the power consumption exceeds 4kW, the high conduction loss of gallium nitride has challenged its heat dissipation design. In terms of power efficiency in this power range, the efficiency of the two is similar at half load, but the efficiency of silicon carbide at full load can be even higher.
With the rapid implementation of various cloud-based AI applications, data centers are facing huge power challenges, and server power supplies based on third-generation semiconductor solutions not only solve the problem of high-power power supply, but also further save system costs and electricity costs. Under the influence of the rapid cost reduction of silicon carbide, the demand for power supply in data centers is gradually released, or it will become the third pole of growth of silicon carbide devices in addition to mainstream applications such as automobile and new power system reform!
Source: Silicon Carbide Core Observation
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