News & Events
Intersil Introduces New Family of VR11 PWM Controllers and Announces Sampling of Pin-to-Pin-Compatible Dual-Edge Modulation PWM Controllers

MILPITAS, CA, January 30, 2006 – Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL), a world leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance analog solutions, today introduced a new family of VR11 PWM (pulse width modulation) controllers with the industry’s highest accuracy. The ISL6306/07 family and Intersil FET drivers provide the control and switching functions for VR11 CPU core multiphase buck DC/DC converters on desktop, workstation, server, and industrial PC motherboards. These devices also feature 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, or 6-phase operation for flexible voltage regulator design. Intersil also announced sampling of its ISL6326/27 VR11 controller family with a new, proprietary, dual-edge pulse width modulation scheme that is pin-to-pin-compatible with the ISL6306/07, and enables capacitor elimination for further system cost reductions.

“Intersil’s ISL6306/07 family addresses all VR11 CPU power requirements in desktop, server and embedded systems,” said Steve Rivet, Director of Intersil's Desktop/Server Power Management Products Group. “These VR11 PWM controllers are the industry’s first with integrated loadline and over-current protection (OCP) temperature compensation, enabling the designer to maintain the same current limit threshold over temperature without any increase in external components. Additionally, we’re sampling the ISL6326/27 VR11 PWM controllers that are drop-in enhancements to the released ISL6306/07 family, and enable significant bulk output capacitor reduction due to our proprietary, dual-edge PWM architecture. The ISL6326/27 enable the highest-performance-to-price ratio VR11 CPU core regulator, and customers can drop them into their existing systems using the ISL6306/07 family.”

Industry’s Highest Accuracy
The ISL6306, ISL6307 family controls VR11 microprocessor core voltage regulation by driving up to six synchronous-rectified buck channels in parallel. The ISL6306 is optimized for desktop and embedded systems, while the ISL6307 family is optimized for servers and voltage regulator modules (VRMs). Multiphase buck converter architecture uses interleaved timing to multiply channel ripple frequency and reduce input and output ripple currents. Lower ripple results in fewer components, lower component cost, reduced power dissipation, and smaller implementation area. Microprocessor loads can generate load transients with extremely fast edge rates. This family features a high bandwidth control loop and ripple frequencies up to >4MHz to provide optimal response to transients.

Today’s microprocessors require a tightly regulated output voltage position versus load current (droop). The ISL6306/07 family senses current by utilizing patented techniques to measure the voltage across the on resistance RDS (ON) of the lower MOSFETs during the lower MOSFET conduction intervals and DCR (direct current resistance) of the output inductor when current flows through the inductor. Current sensing provides the needed signals for precision droop, channel-current balancing, and over-current protection. A programmable internal temperature compensation function is implemented to effectively compensate for the temperature coefficient of the current sense element. A unity gain, differential amplifier is provided for remote voltage sensing, and any potential difference between remote and local grounds can be completely eliminated using the remote sense amplifier. Eliminating ground differences improves voltage regulation and protection accuracy. The ISL6326/27 are drop-in enhancements to the ISL6306 and the ISL6307, respectively.

Key Features

• Precision multiphase core voltage regulation
• Differential remote voltage sensing
• ±0.5% system accuracy over life, load, line and temperature
• Adjustable precision reference-voltage offset
• Precision RDS (ON) or DCR current sensing
• Accurate load-line programming
• Accurate channel-current balancing
• Differential current sense
• Microprocessor voltage identification input
  • 8-Bit VID input with selectable VR11 code and extended VR10 code at 6.25mV step
• 0.5V to 1.600V operation range
• Threshold-sensitive enable function for power sequencing and VTT enable
• Thermal monitoring
• Programmable temperature compensation
• Overcurrent protection
• Overvoltage protection with OVP output indication
• 2-, 3-, 4-, 5- or 6-phase operation

Target Applications

• VR11 CPU core multiphase buck DC/DC converters on desktop, workstation, server and industrial PC motherboards
• VRMs
• Point-of-load (POL) applications
• DC/DC converters

About Intersil’s Power Management Portfolio
Intersil is a recognized global leader in power management solutions, offering a broad portfolio of products that simplify a variety of power designs. Intersil’s family of power management ICs ranges from building blocks such as charge pumps, to highly-integrated, multiple-output and multiphase PWMs, to quad-voltage hot-swap controllers. As a leading supplier of PWM controller ICs with over 2 billion units shipped, Intersil addresses a broad range of power management needs for applications that include computing, communications, peripherals, display, networking, telecommunications, industrial, instrumentation and battery-powered products. To learn more, visit Intersil’s Power Management Web site at http://www.intersil.com/power.

Pricing and Availability
The ISL6306 is available now in a 40-lead QFN package and is priced at $2.47, the ISL6307 is available now in a 48-lead QFN package and is priced at $3.15, the ISL6307A is available now in a 48-lead QFN package and is priced at $3.41, and the ISL6307B is available now in a 48-lead QFN package and is priced at $3.52. All pricing is in 1,000-unit quantities. The ISL6326 and ISL6327 are sampling now. More information on the ISL6306 is available at http://www.intersil.com/cda/deviceinfo/0,1477,ISL6306,0.html, more information on the ISL6307 is available at http://www.intersil.com/cda/deviceinfo/0,1477,ISL6307,0.html, more information on the ISL6307A is available at http://www.intersil.com/cda/deviceinfo/0,1477,ISL6307A,0.html, more information on the ISL6307B is available at http://www.intersil.com/cda/deviceinfo/0,1477,ISL6307B,0.html, more information on the ISL6326 is available at http://www.intersil.com/cda/deviceinfo/0,1477,ISL6326,0.html and more information on the ISL6327 is available at http://www.intersil.com/cda/deviceinfo/0,1477,ISL6327,0.html. A large selection of power products is supported by Intersil’s iSim™ online design tool. To explore these solutions, visit http://www.intersil.com/isim/. To view a broad range of application block diagrams, visit Intersil’s Application Design Center at http://www.intersil.com/apps.

Note to editors: To view a high-resolution downloadable photo of the ISL6306/07/07A/07B, visit Intersil’s photo room at: http://www.intersil.com/pressroom/photoarchives.asp. About Intersil
Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL) is a leader in the design and manufacture of high performance analog semiconductors. The Company’s products address three of the industry’s fastest growing markets: flat panel displays, handhelds and power management. Intersil products include power management devices for battery management, hot-swap and hot-plug controllers, linear regulators, supervisory ICs, switching DC/ DC regulators and power MOSFET drivers; optical storage laser diode drivers; DSL line drivers; video and high performance operational amplifiers; data converters; interface ICs; analog switches and multiplexers; crosspoint switches; voice-over-IP devices; and ICs for military, space and rad-hard applications. For more information about Intersil or to find out how to become a member of our winning team, visit the Company’s web site and career page at www.intersil.com.

Dynamic-VID™ and iSim are trademarks of Intersil Americas, Inc. All other brands or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.