Intelligent power control using System-On-Chip devices

Nowadays PWM control circuits are usually embedded into a microprocessor or a system-on-chip core. The real improvement for such implementation should come not only from more precise PWM generation or from more complicated control loop algorithms, but also from new added functionalities like: power quality monitoring, new failure and security procedures, design for test and testability features and inter-block communications. The paper proposes an evaluation of perspectives for implementing intelligent power control devices with system-on-chip technology from three points of view: intrinsic functionality - better PWM control for SMPS, testability - embedding test structures into power control topologies and added functionality - extending the system intelligence by improving its capacity to communicate with other systems. The paper will present design principles of such intelligent devices along with experimental results showing key-points of the concept implementation.