Power management integrated circuit

Power management integrated circuits (power management ICs or PMICs or PMU as unit) are integrated circuits (or a system block in a system-on-a-chip device) for managing power requirements of the host system. Thus PMIC refers to a wide range of chips, however most include some form of electronic power conversion and/or relevant power control functions. A PMIC is often included in battery-operated devices such as mobile phones and portable media players to decrease the amount of space required.

The term PMIC refers to a class of integrated circuits that perform various functions related to power requirements. A PMIC may have one or more of the following functions:

Power management ICs are solid state devices that control the flow and direction of electrical power. Many electrical devices have multiple internal voltages (e.g., 5 V, 3.3 V, 1.8 V, etc.) and sources of external power (e.g., wall outlet, battery, etc.), meaning that the power design of the device has multiple requirements for operation. A PMIC can refer to any chip that is an individual power related function, but generally refer to ICs that incorporate more than one function such as different power conversions and power controls such as voltage supervision and undervoltage protection. By incorporating these functions into one IC, a number of improvements to the overall design can be made such as better conversion efficiency, smaller solution size and better heat dissipation.

A PMIC may include battery management, voltage regulation, and charging functions. It may include a DC to DC converter to allow dynamic voltage scaling. Some models are known to feature up to 95% power conversion efficiency. Some models integrate with dynamic frequency scaling in a combination known as DVFS (dynamic voltage and frequency scaling).

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