Enhanced Safety, Reliability, and Efficiency in Renewable Energy Applications with New Power Conversion Platform

Analog Devices (ADI) has announced a fully integrated power conversion platform for next-generation solar power, energy storage, and electric vehicle infrastructure applications.

The platform, which includes processing, gate drive, and sensing components, is designed to enable faster new switching architectures and accommodate increasingly stringent safety regulations. By integrating ADI's recognized iCoupler digital isolation technology with an innovative mixed-signal processor design (ADSP-CM41x), this platform simplifies system design for power inverter manufacturers while improving system safety and reliability and reducing the cost of renewable energy.

Power systems must be carefully designed to isolate current measurement from power-handling circuitry and transient signals in a manner that prevents end users from experiencing electric shock or the system from sustaining physical damage. Traditionally, providing these protective functions required redundant use of multiple isolation components, which increased costs and system complexity, necessitating substantial investment.



To address this, Analog Devices recently introduced the ADSP-CM41x processor family, featuring innovative design that integrates redundant dual-core safety mechanisms on a single chip. The ADSP-CM41x is an integral component of the power conversion platform and is currently the first and only processor of its kind to receive a Certificate of Safety Attestation (VDE-AR-N4105) from TUV-SUD. This provides designers greater confidence in their own certification processes and facilitates faster, more cost-effective system development.

Additionally, the platform includes the AD740x Σ-Δ (sigma-delta) based ADC and the ADuM413x product family isolated gate drivers featuring iCoupler digital isolation technology, which reduce system costs by replacing larger, more expensive sensor modules and enhance isolated current measurement capability.

Meanwhile, Analog Devices has introduced a new evaluation kit, ADZS-CM419F-EZLITE, to assist developers in evaluating and designing with the newly launched platform. The kit is currently being sold at $410.