VICOR has announced high density DC-DC converters in a rugged chassis-mount package, offering improved versatility, thermal performance and power system economy.
The new, rugged, chassis-mountable versions of the Vicor DCM family of isolated, regulated DC-DC converters retain the industry’s highest power density and best-in-class thermal and electrical performance but in a rugged new package (VIA packaging technology) that offers enhanced versatility in converter mounting and cooling.
Vicor claims the converters are ideally suited for use in a broad range of industrial, process control, automotive, heavy equipment, communications and defense/aerospace applications.
The DCM family of converts feature Vicor’s efficient, soft-switching ZVS conversion technology and its Converter housed in Package (ChiP) packaging technology.
According to Vicor, enclosing a ChiP converter in a rugged VIA package creates a mechanically robust product. The packaging also simplifies mounting to a chassis or other external heat sinking device; and provides for improved thermal performance in a variety of applications.
Initially available DCM converters feature efficiencies up to 93% and include nominal 300 VDC input models (180 or 200 to 420 Vin range) at output voltages of 12, 24, and 48 V and at power levels up to 600 W, and nominal 28 VDC input models (16 to 50 Vin range) at output voltages of 12 and 24 V and at power levels up to 320 W (with other output voltages available soon).
The new DCMs feature enhanced functional integration by incorporating EMI filtering, transient protection, inrush current limiting, and a secondary-referenced control interface for trim, enable and remote-sensing. Configurations are available for both on-board mounting and for chassis mounting.
Chassis mounting can offer system cost and performance advantages: moving the DC-DC conversion function off the board can reduce board size and cost, or it can free up valuable board real estate for other uses, and taking advantage of an existing chassis for heat removal can eliminate the need for, and cost of external heat sinks, while also providing improved thermal performance.
Power system designers can also benefit from Vicor’s Power Component Design Methodology. They can use Vicor’s online tools to select from an extensive portfolio of proven Vicor power components to architect, optimize and simulate their complete power system, all the way from their input sources to their points of load.