Accumulated-energy tracking, transient protection, and programmable alerts help designers build more responsive power architectures for high-demand applications.
As 48V power architectures gain adoption in automotive, AI/data centres, networking, telecom, industrial, and server systems, monitoring voltage and current alone is increasingly insufficient. The PAC1761 and PAC1861 digital power monitors by Microchip add energy-aware measurement to 48V systems, allowing designers to track both instantaneous electrical conditions and accumulated energy consumption.
The devices support measurements up to 65V, providing additional voltage headroom for systems operating around the 48V rail. They also offer 75V spike protection, helping the monitoring circuitry withstand transient events that can occur during load changes or other disturbances. This combination can improve system robustness while reducing the need for additional protection circuitry.
A key advantage of the PAC1761 and PAC1861 is their ability to work with accumulated power data rather than relying only on real-time measurements. Designers can configure accumulated-energy thresholds and use the resulting information to make power-management decisions based on longer-term energy behaviour. This can help systems respond proactively to changing power availability and consumption.
The key features are:
- 65V operating measurement capability for 48V rails
- 75V transient spike protection
- 12-bit and 16-bit resolution options
- VDFN-8, VDFN-10, and MSOP-10 packages
- Automotive-orderable variants available
The monitors also provide programmable alerts for voltage, current, and power excursions. Step-limit detection can identify sudden changes in load, enabling a system controller to react more quickly to abnormal or unexpected operating conditions. These functions can be particularly useful in power-distribution architectures where rapid load transitions need to be detected without placing excessive processing demands on the host controller.
The PAC1761 provides 12-bit measurement resolution, while the PAC1861 offers 16-bit resolution, allowing designers to select the device according to monitoring accuracy and system requirements. Both families are offered in VDFN-8, VDFN-10, and MSOP-10 packages, with automotive-orderable variants available. Pin-compatible options also provide flexibility to switch between device variants without extensive PCB redesign.
Applications include 48V power distribution, automotive electronics, AI/data-centre infrastructure, networking equipment, servers, telecom systems, PoE equipment, and industrial power systems.
Development support includes the EV12R33A evaluation board, Python CLI and library, Linux driver, and generic C library with MCU examples. The devices are available now, with pricing starting at $0.56 per unit in 10,000-unit quantities for selected variants.
