It is hard to find someone who is not familiar with the term carbon footprint. It is equally difficult to find a company that does not have an environmental policy or standpoint. Worldwide concern about global warming, wastage and hazardous by-products means that greener product design can benefit sales as much as the environment.

Further pressure is added by emerging regulations. Energy Star is a joint programme from the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Energy that provides consumers with clear efficiency ratings for a range of products. For desktop computers and servers, the 80 PLUS incentive programme is driving energy-efficient power supplies, and there are also rumours that the EU will issue a directive that is even more stringent than 80 PLUS.

To overcome these regulations, deal with environmental policies and provide greener end products, there is no single solution that will completely optimise a design. Instead, using a range of new developments from leading component manufacturers, a few of which are highlighted here, will help to tackle the green issue across the board.

Improving the efficiency of power supplies at full-load, for example, remains a critical area for improvement. The biggest energy savings can be made when consumption is at its peak. Support for more efficient power delivery is being offered by NXP’s energy-saving synchronous rectifier controllers (page 080524), and by National Semiconductor’s 97%-efficient regulators for IC-core voltages (page 080529).

Another important green consideration is the increasing amount of power consumed by electronic devices in stand-by mode. Designing a circuit that is efficient both in stand-by mode and during normal operation, however, is a challenging technical problem. ON Semiconductor’s current-mode controller (shown on page 080526) deals with this by automatically adjusting its operating frequency to optimise efficiency.

Efficient processing is another key area being supported with new component developments. Microchip’s latest MCU combines power savings with hardware acceleration (page 080530), and Freescale Semiconductor’s 8-bit MCUs target cost-sensitive, ultra-low-power designs (page 080525). Specific applications are also supported,including modules from Fairchild Semiconductor for motor-drive applications (page 080536), and Monolithic ballast drives for efficient lighting from NXP (page 080523).