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15 Technical Challenges to Consider and Conquer When Designing a 48V Power Delivery Network
The benefits of moving to 48V power delivery networks are well documented. However, the technical challenges are not as evident. As development engineers embark on their first 48V designs, questions naturally arise. To help you better prepare for your 48V migration consider the following 15 challenges.
White Paper Overview
The first widespread adoption of 48V system power can be traced back more than 100 years, when the nascent telephone industry recognized the efficiency and transmission distance benefits. More recently, the Open Compute Project has advocated for 48V power delivery within data center racks. Some electric vehicles are now employing 48V system power.
The pace of this generational change from 12V PDNs to 48V PDNs is now accelerating. It’s a question of when rather than if systems will migrate to 48V. The pressure from automotive electrification, the extreme pace of artificial intelligence computing, and the emergence of high-power industrial applications are converging on 48V power delivery networks. While power engineers have decades of experience and confidence with 12V PDNs, questions loom for design teams when migrating to higher capacity 48V PDNs. Discrete systems have been effective with 12V power designs for decades, but when set against evolving power delivery challenges, they can fall short. In many cases ongoing
industry innovation – including architectures, topologies and packaging – will ease the implementation of next generation 48V challenges. This innovation will intensify the migration to 48V and help deliver scalable, high-density, future-proofed PDNs.
