March 7, 2012, Seoul, Korea – In response to rapidly shrinking system power budgets and design complexity associated with application processors entering the multi-core era, Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE: FSL, www.freescale.com) has announced next-generation Power Management ICs (PMICs) that work seamlessly with its latest i.MX 6 application processors. Freescale's new PF series multi-functional PMIC includes products optimized to meet the specific requirements of several high-growth applications in smart mobile devices, automotive infotainment, and embedded markets.

Today's sophisticated application processors increasingly oriented toward multi-processing deliver a new dimension of performance and promote the development of new and exciting end products; however, system design companies face the challenge of using minimal power ranges to ensure smaller end product form factors and extended battery life. Freescale's new PF series PMIC is designed to enable system design companies and OEM vendors to quickly and easily configure the most power-efficient solutions for specific applications based on Freescale's advanced i.MX 6 product family. Additionally, the PF series provides optimal configurability, allowing the PMIC to scale across single, dual, and quad-core i.MX 6 products.

The PF series product family supports Freescale's broad i.MX 6 SoC product line, which integrates multiple power management functions that were previously handled by discrete PMICs. Consequently, Freescale's new PF series product family can integrate more system-level power management functions, ultimately providing a platform solution that simplifies design, reduces overall power consumption, and shortens time-to-market. Furthermore, ease of use is further enhanced through comprehensive reference designs provided with the i.MX 6 processor, application-specific PMICs that seamlessly integrate each component, and software support.

Michael Jennings, Director of Power Management at Freescale's Automotive and Industrial Solutions Group, stated, "Freescale's next-generation PF series delivers optimal system-level power management capabilities to customers, what we call comprehensive Power Fusion." He added, "Freescale's next-generation PF series reference designs seamlessly combine Freescale's latest i.MX 6 processors, configurable PMICs, software, and support that provide customers with a reliable, straightforward, and accelerated development environment."

Designed with reliability and long lifetime as fundamentals, the PF series PMIC also provides optimal flexibility supporting application-specific power management. This PMIC is programmable, allowing system design companies to supply voltage levels that meet the precise requirements of specific end products. Additionally, the PF series products are highly configurable. One-Time Programmable (OTP) memory is adopted, enabling precise partitioning and allocation of power rails for specific cores or other processing technologies.

Freescale has maintained long-term leadership in automotive and embedded processor markets where stringent reliability is required under extreme environmental conditions. Leveraging this specialized expertise, Freescale is providing customers with next-generation PMICs that guarantee high reliability over extended periods.

PF0100 PMIC Device
Freescale plans to announce the initial PF series PMIC in two versions: the automotive-grade PF0100 device and another PF0100 version with an operating temperature range of -40°C to +85°C designed for consumer and industrial markets. Both versions are configured to support various connectivity peripherals, are user-programmable via OTP memory, and are manufactured in a 0.5 mm pitch QFN package in a single row to enable cost-effective mass production. They also feature fully programmable ramp timing and sequencing capabilities. Freescale plans to announce additional PF series devices targeting consumer and other markets within several months.