EETimes India - September 16-30, 2008 - (Page 4) News Legislation drives move to low-power design By John Berrie Zuken Aidan Turnbull Environ Corp. New European legislation has come into effect to tackle the challenge of global warming as well as several other environmental issues of product design, and this will have a major impact on a wide range of consumer electronic equipment sold in Europe in the future. A new European directive became law in August 2007 to address the fundamental environmental impact that a product has on society. It requires design teams to reduce environmental impacts and costs not just in power consumption but also in the choice of materials, manufacturing processes, packaging, use, and end-of-life options. The companies that address these issues from the start of the design cycle with a systematic approach can gain significant cost savings and marketing benefits. Integrated design is vital to gaining those benefits, and thinking about the environmental requirements and different options early in the design cycle can provide significant improvements in power consumption without stretching design schedules. sonal computers and computer monitors, and imaging equipment such as printers and scanners. Introducing low-power design into these areas will impact on the design and marketing of consumer electronic equipment. All this brings significant changes in how products are designed, and the Electronics Knowledge Transfer Network in the UK has commissioned strategic briefings for each of these product groups. These are available to anyone to explain the requirements and the status of implementing measures and to provide advice on design options that product designers should consider. Briefings on the first two of the product groups—standby and off-mode losses, and battery chargers and external power supplies—are now available for download and briefings on other groups will follow. There are several different ways of meeting these requirements, including hard-off switching, primary power supply efficiency at low load, secondary or standalone power supplies, and lower power consumption circuitry for standby functions. Discuss WEEE mandate for India? With the growing problem of e-waste and too few equipment manufacturers taking action, is India in need of clear-cut legislation similar to the EU’s WEEE directive? Standby, off-mode loss Legislation on standby losses is set to come into effect in the United Kingdom in 2009, which will set progressively stricter limits for standby and off-mode power consumption of all house- New laws The scope of the legislation – the EcoDesign of Energy Using Products (EuP) Directive - is deliberately broad so that an increasingly wide range of products can be targeted over the next few years. This will require manufacturers to introduce design changes that reduce the environmental impact of their products across the life cycle, with a particular focus on energy. The consumer electronics industry is at the forefront of the changes. Four of the first product groups that will be regulated under the EuP Directive are standby and off-mode losses, battery chargers and external power supplies, per- Berrie: New legislation across Europe will require equipment designers to think about environmental considerations earlier in the process and adopt new techniques. hold and office electrical equipment which will be phased in over a three year period to 2012. It will also require equipment to have a power management function that automatically transitions to a lower power standby or off-modes. Battery chargers In January 2008, the European Commission published draft legislation on external power supplies—not including battery chargers. The first phase will take effect six months after the legislation comes into force and are in line with the new United States Energy Bill. The second phase takes effect after two years and is harmonized with the levels in the European Code of Conduct for external power supplies and the U.S. Energy Star programme. This will require all power supplies to meet performance levels that are currently only achieved by the top 25 percent. To comply with the new requirements, power supply designers should consider replacing linear power supplies with more efficient switchedmode power supplies, and improving the efficiency and power factor correction for switched-mode power supplies. Design options include reducing rectification losses by using Schottky diodes or synchronous rectification, reducing switching losses by using resonant technology, reducing circuit and component losses, and using passive or active power factor correction. High-speed digital There is ample scope for reducing power consumption in high-speed digital design by paying attention to the detail early in the design cycle. New silicon devices are now capable of switching in only when needed, and making use of the wide choice of components with the details of their power down modes is essential within the design tool environment. Board-level design techniques such as consideration of power dissipation in termination techniques are also not difficult to implement and do not have to impair system performance but do need to be supported within the tool environment, as this has an impact on the design tools that are used. A board simulator that models the current as well as voltage during device switching demonstrates power savings. The timing has to be analysed to make sure that there is no drop in performance. This is why this has to be part of the early design work rather than a last minute “fix.” New legislation in the U.K. and across Europe will require equipment designers to reduce the power consumption of their designs and include a wider range of environmental considerations. Tackling these issues from the start of the design rather than as an add-on to existing designs or at the end of the design cycle will provide significant cost savings and marketing benefits. All this requires designers to think about the issues much earlier in the process and adopt new techniques. Assistance from design tools is vital to include these capabilities in the product design, from simulation through to the full system design. But the tools have to be able to support the optimisation of power from the component level, through the board level to the system level, in order to provide power design through the life cycle of the equipment to meet the new European legislation. 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