1. Surveying the landscape
In a previous whitepaper on the topic “Build or Buy?” [1], we took a fresh, holistic view on perspectives for addressing this difficult, yet common question that system designers and board engineers must make all the time. We identified many factors (technical, logistical, business, and otherwise) that need to be considered to enable a designer to initiate their own process for evaluating these many factors and forge a plan most amenable to their situation. We also presented the pros and cons to consider and compare when trying to streamline the variety of factors involved in application design.
In this whitepaper, we shall focus more in-depth on specific factors within the evaluation process and their success rates prior to development. Namely, a focus on evaluating external power vendor resources, determining your own organization’s/team’s flexibility to meet your approach, and advice on how to drive that approach with team buy-ins are presented in this instance.
One factor to consider is a power vendor’s modular portfolio - pick a power vendor’s website and review the products they have that you feel may be a good fit (as close as possible) to what you are looking for. Bear in mind that the key objective of this exercise is not to cross your fingers and hope to strike gold with the perfect, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) part that matches all your design requirements.
Naturally, that can be a great happenstance too, but what you should really be looking for in most scenarios are the vendor’s capabilities.
This can be investigated through product listings, discussions about product spaces and industrial markets covered, and perhaps even case studies or historical background information on real, demonstrated solutions to real problems.
Vendors present this kind of content in a mix of formats, which include, but are not limited to, data sheets (a.k.a. specification or spec sheets), certifications, application notes, whitepaper, webinars, product/marketing overview documents, design guides, evaluation modules, etc.
If you go a level deeper, then you may also want to consider the human resources in addition to the capital expenditure (CAPEX) resources. What is the level of experience of the team? How long have they been working together as a team? How long have they been working specifically in the application space for your solution?
Many of these questions may seem trivial, but in practice, one tends to learn that this minutia can make all the difference in the world when deciding on the “Build or Buy?” question, as well as facilitating the selection of a vendor when going external.
This applies far more to full-custom or semi-custom developments, but should not be disregarded for COTS solutions either. Just because you are buying a fully-designed, qualified part does not mean:
A well-organized, informational website that is easy to navigate and is intuitive in helping you quickly converge on what you are looking for can be your first, unofficial indicator of the type of experience you can expect from a power vendor.
Fig. 1: Power vendor product selection tool website screenshot, courtesy of RECOM Power [2]
Product data sheets should be easy to come by without needing to jump through many hoops of steps such as clicking from page to page and/or having to submit a great deal of information. Ideally, the data sheets are accompanied using plenty of design examples, application notes, usage in target applications, and other handy design tools (e.g., calculators and simulators).
If you are forced to select a single item to evaluate a vendor by over anything else (before even talking to them), then that would be the data sheets. When properly scrutinized, a data sheet can tell you, or at the very least clue you into, what kind of vendor you can expect when working with this development partner.
Some common data sheet items and some of the implied messaging (direct or otherwise) are summarized in the table below.
As information that is missing from the data sheet can tell you a great deal too, be sure to question why something may or may not be present. These questions, while sometimes awkward, can help clue you quickly into to how well the product performs, if there were any nuances or cause for concern (inc. supply issues and field bugs), how well-organized the vendor is, how transparently they communicate, and how well the team seems to communicate amongst themselves.
When performing this analysis across multiple vendors and starting to get a survey of the market, make sure to listen to the data created by your analysis. Are there many same/similar solutions to what you are looking for on the market? There are likely good reasons behind this, and they can give you hints as to ...
In this whitepaper, we shall focus more in-depth on specific factors within the evaluation process and their success rates prior to development. Namely, a focus on evaluating external power vendor resources, determining your own organization’s/team’s flexibility to meet your approach, and advice on how to drive that approach with team buy-ins are presented in this instance.
One factor to consider is a power vendor’s modular portfolio - pick a power vendor’s website and review the products they have that you feel may be a good fit (as close as possible) to what you are looking for. Bear in mind that the key objective of this exercise is not to cross your fingers and hope to strike gold with the perfect, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) part that matches all your design requirements.
Naturally, that can be a great happenstance too, but what you should really be looking for in most scenarios are the vendor’s capabilities.
This can be investigated through product listings, discussions about product spaces and industrial markets covered, and perhaps even case studies or historical background information on real, demonstrated solutions to real problems.
Vendors present this kind of content in a mix of formats, which include, but are not limited to, data sheets (a.k.a. specification or spec sheets), certifications, application notes, whitepaper, webinars, product/marketing overview documents, design guides, evaluation modules, etc.
If you go a level deeper, then you may also want to consider the human resources in addition to the capital expenditure (CAPEX) resources. What is the level of experience of the team? How long have they been working together as a team? How long have they been working specifically in the application space for your solution?
Many of these questions may seem trivial, but in practice, one tends to learn that this minutia can make all the difference in the world when deciding on the “Build or Buy?” question, as well as facilitating the selection of a vendor when going external.
This applies far more to full-custom or semi-custom developments, but should not be disregarded for COTS solutions either. Just because you are buying a fully-designed, qualified part does not mean:
- It was designed/qualified for your exact application.
- You will get the support/resources you need to properly integrate it into your system.
- You will get the support/resources you need to adequately address a quality/reliability and/or field failure issue.
A well-organized, informational website that is easy to navigate and is intuitive in helping you quickly converge on what you are looking for can be your first, unofficial indicator of the type of experience you can expect from a power vendor.
Fig. 1: Power vendor product selection tool website screenshot, courtesy of RECOM Power [2]
Product data sheets should be easy to come by without needing to jump through many hoops of steps such as clicking from page to page and/or having to submit a great deal of information. Ideally, the data sheets are accompanied using plenty of design examples, application notes, usage in target applications, and other handy design tools (e.g., calculators and simulators).
If you are forced to select a single item to evaluate a vendor by over anything else (before even talking to them), then that would be the data sheets. When properly scrutinized, a data sheet can tell you, or at the very least clue you into, what kind of vendor you can expect when working with this development partner.
Some common data sheet items and some of the implied messaging (direct or otherwise) are summarized in the table below.
| Datasheet item | Potential Interpretations |
|---|---|
| LINE/LOAD REGULATION, RIPPLE & NOISE |
|
| EFFICIENCY |
|
| OPERATING/SWITCHING, FREQUENCY |
|
| PROTECTION CIRCUITS |
|
| INPUT/OUTPUT CAPACITANCE (INC. FILTERING) |
|
| SAFETY/ISOLATION (INC. CERTIFICATIONS) |
|
| QUALITY/RELIABILITY DATA |
|
| MECHANICAL DATA (Not including thermal issues) |
|
| THERMAL DATA (Not including form-factor issues) |
|
Table 1: Power Supply Data Sheet Information & Interpretation
As information that is missing from the data sheet can tell you a great deal too, be sure to question why something may or may not be present. These questions, while sometimes awkward, can help clue you quickly into to how well the product performs, if there were any nuances or cause for concern (inc. supply issues and field bugs), how well-organized the vendor is, how transparently they communicate, and how well the team seems to communicate amongst themselves.
When performing this analysis across multiple vendors and starting to get a survey of the market, make sure to listen to the data created by your analysis. Are there many same/similar solutions to what you are looking for on the market? There are likely good reasons behind this, and they can give you hints as to ...
