Lattice Programmable Power Manager Device Reduces Cost of Power Failure Protection for Solid State Drives

Reduces Capacitor Size, Removes Boost Converter, Increases Reliability

HILLSBORO, OR, Jun 11, 2012  --Lattice Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: LSCC) today announced power management solutions that will greatly simplify and increase the reliability of power failure protection circuitry in Solid State Drives (SSD). The power failure protection circuitry prevents data loss in the event of input power failure by using the on-board hold-up capacitor to provide supplemental power during that critical period when the data is fully saved into the Flash memory. These circuits traditionally use either a super capacitor or a tantalum capacitor bank along with a voltage boost converter to store the energy.

The innovative Lattice Power Manager II device simplifies and reduces the cost of power failure protection circuitry by integrating the charging and power switchover circuit of the hold-up capacitor. In the case of tantalum hold-up capacitor applications, it eliminates the need for a voltage boost converter.

"The power failure circuitry implemented using our Power Manager II devices can be used across a wide range of solid state drive architectures," said Shakeel Peera, Senior Director of Strategic Marketing for Lattice Semiconductor. "These power management ICs can greatly lower system cost and free up board space by reducing the hold-up capacitor size."

Lattice's Power Manager II devices enable the integration of super capacitor or tantalum capacitor charging and switchover, hot swap control, power fail interrupt and sequencing. The Power Manager's precision voltage monitoring (0.7% accuracy), fast response (48 microseconds) and on-chip CPLD greatly improve the reliability of the power failure protection circuitry in an SSD. Faster system response, voltage doubler, capacitor voltage monitor and control circuitry reduce the amount of capacitance required to provide backup power during power outages.

Additional information about the use of Power Manager II devices in SSD design is available at www.latticesemi.com/SSDPOWER.

Software Support for Power Manager II Designs for the Power Manager II devices are implemented using the Lattice PAC-Designer(R) design software tools that are available for download free of charge at www.latticesemi.com/pac-designer.

About the Power Manager II Family

The programmable Power Manager II family consists of six devices that can monitor and control up to 12 power supplies. Within the family, the low power POWR607 device is ideal for portable SSD architectures, controlling up to six supplies and incorporating two high voltage MOSFET drivers. The POWR1014 and POWR1220 devices are well suited for enterprise or PCIe SSD architectures. The POWR1220 device can manage up to 12 voltages and drive 4 N-Channel MOSFETs for the most demanding SSD architectures. It consists of a programmable threshold, precision differential input comparator block with an accuracy of 0.7%, a 48-macrocell CPLD, programmable hardware timers, a 10-bit analog to digital converter and a trim block for the trimming and margining of supplies.

All Lattice programmable mixed-signal product families are supported by development kits and reference designs that enable fast, easy product development.

For more information about Power Manager II devices, visit http://www.latticesemi.com/products/powermanager.

About Lattice Semiconductor

Lattice is a service-driven developer of innovative low cost, low power programmable design solutions. For more information about how our FPGA, CPLD and programmable power management devices help our customers unlock their innovation, visit www.latticesemi.com.