KOSEN 한인과학기술자네트워크

Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC)

 Power management ICs are solid state devices that control the flow and direction of electrical power. Many electrical devices have multiple internal voltages (e.g., 5 V, 3.3 V, 1.8 V, etc.) and sources of external power (e.g., wall outlet, battery, etc.), meaning that the power design of the device has multiple requirements for operation. A PMIC can refer to any chip that is an individual power related function, but generally refer to ICs that incorporate more than one function such as different power conversions and power controls such as voltage supervision and undervoltage protection. By incorporating these functions into one IC, a number of improvements to the overall design can be made such as better conversion efficiency, smaller solution size and better heat dissipation.

Envelope Tracking

 Envelope tracking (ET) describes an approach to radio frequency (RF) amplifier design in which the power supply voltage applied to the RF power amplifier is continuously adjusted to ensure that the amplifier is operating at peak efficiency for power required at each instant of transmission.
 A conventional RF amplifier designed with a fixed supply voltage operates most efficiently only when operating in compression. Amplifiers operating with a constant supply voltage become less efficient as the crest factor of the signal increases, because the amplifier spends more time operating below peak power and, therefore, spends more time operating below its maximum efficiency.

Energy Harvesting

 Energy harvesting (also known as power harvesting or energy scavenging or ambient power) is the process by which energy is derived from external sources (e.g., solar power, thermal energy, wind energy, salinity gradients, and kinetic energy, also known as ambient energy), captured, and stored for small, wireless autonomous devices, like those used in wearable electronics and wireless sensor networks.
 Energy harvesters provide a very small amount of power for low-energy electronics. While the input fuel to some large-scale generation costs resources (oil, coal, etc.), the energy source for energy harvesters is present as ambient background and is free. For example, temperature gradients exist from the operation of a combustion engine and in urban areas, there is a large amount of electromagnetic energy in the environment because of radio and television broadcasting.

Wireless Power Transfer

 Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) makes it possible to supply power through an air gap, without the need for current-carrying wires. WPT can provide power from an AC source to compatible batteries or devices without physical connectors or wires. WPT can recharge mobile phones and tablets, drones, cars, even transportation equipment. It may even be possible to wirelessly transmit power gathered by solar-panel arrays in space.

Driving Buffer Amplifier

 A voltage buffer amplifier is used to transfer a voltage from an input to an output load. However, conventional amplifiers cannot drive various kinds of loads because of stability issues. So, various kinds of amplifier design should be required, which lessen a cost effectiveness.
 To increase the cost effectiveness, the buffer amplifier has to drive various loads without any stability issues while achieving a fast settling time.

Sensor Analog Front-End (AFE)

An analog front-end is a set of analog signal conditioning circuitry that uses sensitive analog amplifiers, often operational amplifiers, filters, and sometimes application-specific integrated circuits for sensors, radio receivers, and other circuits to provide a configurable and flexible electronics functional block.