High-speed DC load solves point-of-load converter test challenges

Jon Lawson

Intepro Systems announces the EL 2000 HS (high-speed) electronic DC load as the latest addition to its growing family of power system automatic test equipment (ATE).

The EL 2000 HS Series is a stand-alone 40W load module providing point-of-load (POL) connections and point-of-use (POU) for fast slew rate DC loading. Ever-higher switching speeds and lower operating voltages present unique challenges in testing POL/POU power conversion systems. In response, the EL 2000 HS load offers a smart on-board load head that minimizes inductance, resistive losses and noise, which pose serious problems with loads using wires to connect the load to the device-under-test (DUT). In addition, the EL 2000 HS is designed for sub-1V testing to meet the demands of low-voltage devices.

The EL 2000 HS’s standalone modular POU design, along with its smart on-board load head, allows for positioning the load to DUT without the need for customization. The standard load offers four programmable modes of operation: constant current, constant resistance, constant power and constant voltage. All have a 50MHz measurement bandwidth with a 150MS/s, 14-bit digitizer. Measurements include voltage, current, power, noise, settling time and overshoot/undershoot for both V and I.

The standard 20V/20A/40W module can sink 20A with only 0.3V applied to the load head. In constant-current mode the module achieves 40A/µs rise time with a 20A load for high-speed pulse loading when conducting real load simulation of high-bandwidth devices. Ethernet control allows for easy operation by utilising either Intepro’s PowerStar software package or third-party software.