SoC integrates power with audio and touch-screen controller
Chae Lee, Vice President of Handheld Power at Maxim, said consumers are always expecting lighter and thinner smartphones and tablets. Also, larger batteries are needed because of the use of more power hungry processors, displays, and wireless ICs. These requirements are driving the design of much smaller PCBs to enable the desired form factor for these mobile devices.
It is to meet this demand, Maxim says, that it has brought together many technologies from across the company and integrated them into the Power SoC products. The company claims that by incorporating highly efficient power-management functions, audio codec, touch-screen controller, microcontroller, additional memory, and system clocks into one chip, it can reduce board space by 40%, as well as extend battery life and lower system cost.
Maxim’s mobile Power SoC solutions target smartphone or tablet designers who want to minimize the overall component count and increase design flexibility and speed, regardless of which baseband controller or applications processor is used. Additionally, these Power SoC products are claimed to reduce power consumption, PCB size and BOM cost, thus enabling lighter and thinner mobile devices that greatly enhance the user’s experience.
