News and New Products

Power-One, C&D Technologies launch licensing agreement

By Jeff Berman, News Editor -- EDN, 12/17/2004

Power-One, Inc. and C&D Technologies said this week they have reached an agreement in which C&D will design, manufacture and market Power-One's Z-One Digital IBA (intermediate bus architecture)-compliant power systems.

Power-One launched its Z-One Digital IBA technology last March. Dave Hage, the company's vice president, described the technology as a way of combining power management and power conversion with a systems approach in a bus structure.

"In the past, power conversion was being provided by bricks and loads," Hage said. "And on the other side was power management to sequence up different powers at different times. With this technology, we are combining the two together with one microcontroller that replaces power-management functions and which talks with points of load. This is significant, because on one circuit board there 32 different points of load."

Combining forces with C&D makes sense for Power-One because it combines two separate markets, Hage said. "C&D is a major player in dc-to-dc power, and that is a market which has not done any licensing with the power supply market," he said. "We are providing them with what they need to make parts."

Hage expects Power-One's Z-One Digital IBA technology to have a positive impact on electrical engineers, due to its intuitive aspects and its ability to solve power problems with digital programming. For example, he said, the technology allows engineers to change voltage or current readings onscreen as needed, without changing the board layout.

"This technology is the only digitally integrated power system available and allows designers to achieve a new level of power system integration," James D. Johnson, vice president and general manager of C&D Technologies, said in a statement.