Cost-Efficient Integration of Industrial Applications Using Smart Power Gate Arrays

Due to high functional variety, wide power rating range, and relatively low product volumes, electronic systems for industrial application are difficult to economically be integrated on a chip. This paper presents the smart power gate array (SPGA), a novel application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) platform exactly aimed at enabling cost-efficient single-chip integration of industrial electronic systems. The SPGA combines a low-voltage mixed-signal gate array with a structured high-voltage smart-power core, allowing for single-chip integration of signal conditioning, data processing, power management, actuator driving, and line communication functionalities required for industrial applications. Simultaneously, it offers low nonrecurring engineering cost and high design flexibility owning to the utilized gate array technology. In this paper, the SPGA concept is introduced to overcome integration limitations of existing ASIC technologies. Then, design and capabilities of the SPGA functional modules are described. Finally, a practical SPGA application example of single-chip integrated solenoid valve control and monitoring system is demonstrated.