Immediately operate & evaluate a complete power system

The development kit removes the hassles and time penalties associated with designing and acquiring their own prototyping boards, system interconnects, energy storage and thermal management components.

The ACPoL DKit consists of an AC Front-End (ACFE) chassis, which receives power from the AC line and delivers up to 400W of power via an isolated, regulated, distribution bus voltage, and a PoL chassis, which receives the distribution bus voltage and generates three independent regulated PoL outputs. One version of the DKit features a 24VDC distribution bus; another version features a 48VDC bus. DKits include all necessary ancillary components, including a bus hold-up capacitor assembly and an AC line cord.

The ACFE chassis features Vicor’s AIM 1714 and PFM 4414 modular front-end components, each packaged in Vicor’s compact, thermally adept, 9mm-thin, VIA package. The AIM module provides full-wave rectification, Class B conducted EMI filtering and input surge protection. The PFM, which receives its input power from the AIM, features power factor correction and delivers up to 400W of fully isolated, regulated, 24 or 48VDC for powering downstream PoL regulators. The AIM/PFM combination enables power systems designers to instantly implement a full function AC/DC front-end system in a fraction of the space of conventional 1U solutions. And, because the AIM and the PFM are each available in both board and chassis-mount configurations, systems designers can achieve maximum final system density by utilising an available chassis as a mounting and cooling surface.

The PoL chassis features three independent PoL evaluation boards and a power input interface assembly. The power interface receives the regulated 24 or 48VDC power from the ACFE chassis and distributes it to the three PoL evaluation boards. The three PoL evaluation boards comprise, respectively, a 3.3, 5 and 12V PI33/PI35xx Vicor Cool-Power Zero-Voltage Switched (ZVS) Buck Regulator, packaged, respectively, in a 10x14mm or 10x10mm LGA SiP package. Capable of achieving power conversion efficiencies up to 96% while operating from a 48V distribution bus, Vicor Cool-Power ZVS Buck Regulators enable implementation of low profile PoL systems with unprecedented power density and end-to-end system efficiency.

The ACPoL DKit provides everything necessary to begin testing and evaluating the features and benefits of Vicor’s end-to-end modular power systems solutions and the Power Component approach. Vicor’s 'no surprises' Power Component Design Methodology and online PowerBench tools enable power systems engineers to rapidly design and implement complete power systems offering field proven reliability and predictability and industry-leading performance, density, efficiency and economy.

Power Component Design Methodology and Online Configuration and Design Tools

Vicor’s Power Component Design Methodology enables power system designers to reap all of the benefits of modular power component design - predictable component and system functionality and reliability, fast design cycles, and easy system configurability, re-configurability and scaling - while achieving system operating efficiency, power density and economy that rival the best alternative solutions. Utilising Vicor’s online tools, power system designers select from an extensive portfolio of proven Vicor power components to architect, optimise and simulate their complete power system, all the way from their input sources to their points of load. This innovative approach to power system design delivers fast time-to-market and state-of-the-art performance while minimising the possibility of last minute surprises and delays that so often occur with conventional or custom design methodologies.