At ESSERC, Prof. Wicht gave a presentation on “Energize your ICs with Power Management!” as part of the IEEE lecture series “Circuit Insights.” The presentation is now available free of charge on the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society YouTube channel via this link.
Prof. Wicht explains why “Power Management IC Design” is one of the fastest-growing areas of microchip design worldwide, citing the exponentially increasing demand for high-performance computing for artificial intelligence in data centers. The presentation offers a compact introduction to the basics of power management and provides illustrative examples for students in higher bachelor's semesters, master's students, and doctoral candidates. The focus is on principles of efficient power supply for demanding applications, especially in the field of high-performance computing.
The presentation classifies current and future challenges at the system and circuit level – from sub-volt power supplies for next-gen computing, often derived from 48 V, to hybrid voltage converters with switched capacitor stages and inductors, to voltage regulators integrated into the processor with embedded microcoils. In addition, Prof. Wicht highlights requirements from the automotive sector such as EMC and reliability, as well as the trend toward wide bandgap technologies such as GaN and SiC with switching frequencies in the MHz range, and places these developments in the context of future IC designs.
The IMS's Mixed-Signal Circuits department IMS Mixed-Signal group is internationally active in many of these areas with exciting research projects and is always looking for interested students who would like to get involved. Feel free to contact us at: stud-themen-mx@ims.uni-hannover.de
