Characterize server platform voltage regulator performance beyond power conversion

摘要

Higher density, tighter margin and lower cost power solutions for the cutting edge datacenter require more characterization of voltage regulator (VR) beyond its power conversion performance such as voltage ratio and efficiency. Fast transient, ground noise sharing and high frequency switching noises coupling to high speed IO are some of the technical aspects that need to be predicted and designed to meet system requirements. Digital VR controller models with nonlinear functionalities, full wave power stage models and its associated packaging and layout must be extracted in order to fully understand switching VR behavior and power delivery performance. Real examples on design tradeoffs using those characterization methods are presented.