What are the cost considerations of integrated power management conductors?
Cost is another consideration with integrated power management devices. As a semiconductor chip gets larger its cost grows exponentially. And, there is the cost of the package that houses the integrated power device and the cost of interconnections. If both the IC and the discrete power semiconductor have large die so that die cost dominates the overall cost, it will be much cheaper to use two parts. Integrated power technology obviously makes sense when the die sizes are moderate, or there are multiple outputs. This is so because the package and handling costs offset the increased silicon cost. A major impact on cost is the number of good devices that can be obtained from silicon wafer, usually called yield. Not only does a larger die size mean a disproportionately larger cost, but the distribution of values of key parameters has a major impact as well.
