Serobit Digtronix, a Bangalore based startup has started manufacturing dc-dc modules which can be used in the embedded products. These are designed and manufactured in India.
Hardware design engineers spends a lot of time in building high frequency, high efficiency dc-dc power supply circuits. If you have ever worked on high frequency dc-dc power supply design, you must have understood that it is tricky to build a reliable dc-dc power supply which is efficient, low noise, works reliably at various loads, temperature conditions and is cost effective.
Serobit thinks with these readily available modules, they can solve these challenges. They have plans to come up with a lot of options for various needs.
They have recently launched 5.0V and 3.3V DC-DC buck converter modules.
Technical Specification
- DC-DC Converter works at ~600Khz
- High efficiency even at light load condition
- Input voltage: 7 to 15V DC
- Output voltage: 5.0 V or 3.3V ( depending on the variant)
- Power Output: 7.5W Max.
- Output short circuit and thermal shutdown protection inbuilt.
- Efficiency: ~91% @ 15V input, 1.5A load and >93% @ 7V Input, 1.5A load
- Input Voltage Ripple: ~200mV
- Output Voltage Ripple: ~60mv
- No Load Current: <100uA
- Operating temperature range: -20 to 60 Deg C ambient
They are aiming to provide EMI EMC certified modules in the future which engineers can use very confidently in their designs.
Testing
I got an opportunity to get hold of a few initial production samples and here are the test results:
The test instruments used for the testing :
- Room Temperature: 25 – 26 Deg C
- Voltage Measurement: Fluke 179
- Power Supply: OWON Precision 32V 5A
- Adjustable DC Load
- Fluke 59 Mini IR Thermometer
In order to get accurate measurement, I have used Fluke Multimeter to take the measurement at the module itself.
Above test results are quite interesting, even if we consider my measurement might have 2-3% error it looks really good to me. If the modules are available from a company with a proper datasheet, which is well tested, meets the spec and is available low cost, I think many engineers will start using these in their designs.
I would definitely try to use them in some of my designs in the future.
Price
As per my discussion with them they are aiming to sell these modules for around 200 INR per unit in low quantity and around 125 – 150 INR per unit in bulk quantities.
Future products
I was also able to see some of their potential future dc-dc modules.
One is dc-dc boost converter module which are prototyping & testing and another one is high power dc-dc buck converter but with input voltage protection for reverse voltage, over voltage, over current, EMI Filter inbuilt.
It would be really interesting to see how they handle the competition with the cheap Chinese modules which are widely used atleast for quick prototyping and testing.
You can see picture of the prototypes below:
Let me know what do you think about these modules, do you think you would like to use them in your designs?
I hope you have enjoyed this blog. You can read my other interesting articles on embedded system design.
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