Medical Design Briefs - November 2022 - 25

Intelligent Solutions Support Shorter
Design Cycles
Global Medical Device Market Share, By Type, 2020
As systems and end-products have become
more sophisticated, so have the power
solutions that they incorporate. Perhaps
one of the most significant advances in
power supply intelligence has been the advent
of the Power Management Bus - or
PMBus™. Developed by several leading
power supply manufacturers, including
founding member Artesyn Technologies
(now part of Advanced Energy), the PMBus
is a standard means of communicating
with a power device over a digital communication
bus.
The PMBus offers greater robustness
and more features than other approaches,
including I2C (with which it retains some
electrical compatibility). When deployed,
PMBus can be used by a system processor
to configure, control, and monitor the
power solutions - mostly with respect to
voltages, currents and temperatures.
When qualifying a new medical product,
a variety of tests are performed over a
period of days or weeks, depending on the
complexity of the product concerned.
This process can be labor-intensive with
technicians recording key parameters
during the testing phase. However, if a PMBus-capable
power supply is used, then the
inbuilt monitoring function can be used in
place of the technician to record data. As
the monitoring can be faster and be done
with more consistent accuracy thanks to
the removal of potential human error, this
approach can give designers more granular
data and better intelligence with which
to analyze system performance.
For example, the data set can determine
voltages and currents throughout the test,
while the system is cycling through all its
functions. This allows designers to check
that the power supply is correctly specified
Longer Sales Life, High Volume
Orthopedic Devices
Cardiovascular Devices
Diagnosting Imaging
IVD
MIS
Wound Management
Diabetes Care
Ophthalmatics
Dental
Nephrology
General Surgery
Others
Fig. 1 - The medical device market is large, growing and very broad in scope. (Credit: fortunebusinessinsights.com)
for the task in hand, as well as confirming
that current draws are as expected, and
the system is operating as it was designed
to do.
By producing valuable, accurate data
first time, every time the PMBus monitoring
can make a significant contribution to
reduced time-to-market, not least as it releases
the technician(s) to contribute elsewhere
on the project, instead of sitting
noting down results.
Furthermore, the usefulness of PMBus
monitoring in terms of delivering optimized,
reliable power supplies goes beyond
the design and qualification testing
stages. During extended production testing
(including burn-in), for example, test
jigs can be significantly simplified by using
onboard PMBus monitoring instead of
building dedicated test fixtures. And, finally,
once the power supply is deployed in
the field, then monitoring for unexpected
Shorter Sales Life, High Volume
Lost sales from late
product introduction
changes in the operating parameters is
highly valuable in detecting impending
failures before they cause downtime -
essentially, the power supply can be used as
a window to the health of the wider system.
Modern, Intelligent Power Solutions
PMBus-capable modular solutions are
ideal for medical applications. The Advanced
Energy's Excelsys CoolX® 1000
power supplies, for example, brings all the
configuration, control, and monitoring
benefits discussed previously, while modularity
allows the unit to be rapidly configured
(and reconfigured) to meet specific
application needs.
The power supply chassis has been designed
to accept up to six power modules,
allowing for a maximum of 12 isolated DC
outputs ranging from 2.5 to 58 V. IEC
60601-1 (3rd edition) and IEC 60601-1-2
(4th edition, EMC) approval, 2× MOPP
Shorter Sales Life, Low Volume
Lost sales from late
product introduction
and low volume
Early Late
Product Introduction (Time)
Early Late
Product Introduction (Time)
Early Late
Fig. 2 - Getting to market sooner brings greater market share and revenues for a longer time. (Credit: fortunebusinessinsights.com)
Medical Design Briefs, November 2022
www.medicaldesignbriefs.com
Product Introduction (Time)
25
Sales Volume
Sales Volume
Sales Volume
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Medical Design Briefs - November 2022

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