This fully tested reference design provides a complete solution for powering the Xilinx® Zynq® Extensible Processing Platform (EPP). The board was developed by Avnet and Digilent in close collaboration with Xilinx and Maxim. The Zynq device requires nine unique power supply rails (Table 1).

Table 1. Power Rail Descriptions

C connector, and other devices on the board. This is done using two MAX15021 dual-output monolithic synchronous pulse-width modulation (PWM) step-down regulators, one MAX15053 high-efficiency synchronous step-down regulator, the MAX1983 low-dropout linear regulator, the MAX6037A reference voltage, the MAX1510 low-voltage DDR linear regulator, and the MAX8686 monolithic synchronous step-down regulator. Customers who can use 5V as VIN do not need the MAX8686 in their designs. All devices can be sequenced at power-up, as indicated in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Block diagram of the Zynq power architecture.

These point-of-load (POL) regulators were chosen for this design due to their accuracy, small size, and ease of use. Avnet considered solutions from a number of competitive power IC suppliers and chose Maxim for its ideal fit in technical capability, ease of use, and solution cost to meet Zynq EPP power requirements. The MAX15021 dual monolithic synchronous step-down converter is capable of providing up to 4A and 2A from a 5mm x 5mm package. The MAX15053 monolithic synchronous step-down converter can provide up to 2A with very low on-resistance internal MOSFETs. The MAX1983 low-dropout linear regulator can provide up to 300mA, the MAX1510 low-voltage DDR linear regulator, the MAX6037A 0.2% high-accuracy voltage reference and the MAX8686 monolithic synchronous step-down converter are capable of providing up to 25A.