Silicon Labs' EFP01 PMIC Family Enhances Battery Life and Power Efficiency for IoT Devices

Designed as dedicated companion chips for EFR32 wireless devices and EFM32 microcontrollers, Silicon Labs' EFP01 power‑management IC (PMIC) family delivers unmatched energy efficiency for battery‑powered applications such as IoT sensors, asset tags, smart meters, home automation, security, and health devices.

In IoT designs that demand ultra‑low power, the EFP01 cuts both active and sleep current by up to 50 %, boosts power‑conversion efficiency, and extends battery life, allowing developers to choose the optimal battery chemistry and control multiple output rails with a single, compact component.

With integrated low‑voltage DC‑DC converters, regulators, and a flexible power‑rail management architecture, the PMIC simplifies system design while reducing consumption across the board.

Figure: EFP01 PMIC block diagram. (Source: Silicon Laboratories)

Silicon Labs streamlines the creation of low‑power wireless solutions by offering a turnkey power‑management companion for its Wireless Gecko SoCs and MCUs. The Simplicity Studio ecosystem supplies reference designs, sample code, and integrated energy‑profiling and network‑analysis tools.

Key features include:

• A broad input range (0.8 V–5.5 V) that supports a wide variety of batteries, and output rails that accommodate diverse peripherals, MCUs, and radios.
• Buck, boost, and combined boost‑buck (“boost bootstrap”) conversion, enabling low‑voltage, high‑current operation for coin‑cell‑powered IoT products that require up to +20 dBm transmit power.
• Multiple output rails from a single PMIC, reducing board space and simplifying both hardware and firmware.
• A quiescent current as low as 150 nA, which minimizes sleep consumption and maximizes battery longevity.
• Integrated coulomb counting—a feature available in few PMICs—providing real‑time battery‑state data for accurate life estimation and proactive maintenance.

Samples and production volumes of the 3 × 3 mm QFN20 EFP01 PMICs are now available, with an MSRP of $0.55 per unit for orders of 10,000 or more. Three evaluation kits are offered: the SLWRB4179B radio board at $39 and two PMIC evaluation boards at $49 each.

>> An earlier version of this article was originally published on our sister site, Electronic Products.