Empower introduces power delivery platform for AI needs

Incorporating Empower’s proprietary FinFast technology, Crescendo offers scalable, on-demand vertical power delivery for power domains exceeding 3,000A, providing an unmatched blend of system efficiency, current density, and rapid transient response.

As data centres face greater power and speed requirements, traditional lateral power delivery architectures have become inadequate. To achieve high efficiency, these older solutions operate at slow speeds and require a significant amount of space for bulky power stages and magnetics on the top side of the printed circuit board (PCB). In addition, large capacitor banks are necessary near the processor, consuming valuable space and resulting in substantial lateral transmission losses. The growing power demands of AI chips have intensified these transmission losses, presenting a critical challenge for the industry.

Crescendo resolves this issue by eliminating the need for capacitor banks and energy storage, delivering energy to AI chips with unprecedented speed and precision. By removing the capacitors, Crescendo’s compact, high-density, thermally optimised package fits beneath the processor, providing efficient vertical power delivery and eliminating lateral transmission losses.

Empower’s FinFast technology delivers industry-leading efficiency at high speeds, thanks to a combination of advanced silicon, innovative control architectures, high-frequency magnetics, wide-bandwidth capacitors, and superior power packaging. This co-design approach allows for the integration of all power supply components into the most compact and efficient AI power delivery solution available today.

“AI’s accelerating power requirements far outpaces the capability of today’s lateral power solutions, both in scale and speed. In developing the Crescendo platform, Empower enables generations of new AI processors to hit their performance goals while running efficiently and cool,” said Tim Phillips, Founder and CEO of Empower Semiconductor. “With this introduction we are enabling efficient true vertical power delivery for our customers– and this is just the beginning, as the Crescendo platform will allow the integration of power delivery directly into the processor at total power supply densities exceeding 5A/mm², setting Empower apart as the technology leader.”

Key advantages of the Crescendo platform include:

• Ultrafast bandwidth: With 20 times higher bandwidth than conventional power converters, the FinFast-enabled Crescendo platform virtually eliminates PCB-mounted high-frequency decoupling capacitors, placing active power delivery directly beneath the processor
• Power density: Offering five times greater solution density for the same power delivery, Crescendo supports true vertical power delivery within a height of just 1mm or 2mm
• Efficiency: Crescendo achieves a more than 10% reduction in power delivery losses compared to traditional architectures. In a typical data centre with 100,000 CPU instances, this leads to a reduction of over 8 megawatts (MW) in power loss