Z-Alliance welcomes Micrel as newest member

Power-One Inc. and Micrel Inc. jointly announced Micrel had become the newest member of the Z-Alliance of power supply and semiconductor manufacturers offering products and components for the Z-One digital power architecture. The companies also announced the availability of the full line of Z-One compatible low dropout (LDO) regulators.

According to the press release, Micrel's MIC68000 family of LDOs now includes the single MIC68200 and MIC68400 LDOs and the MIC68220 dual LDO. All regulator models are interoperable with Power One's Z-One Point of Load converters (POLs) and ZM7300 digital power managers. By combining the ZM7300's ability to control analog devices and the advanced power management capabilities of Micrel's LDO regulators, the companies further expanded the open architecture capabilities of Z-One Digital IBA.

William T. Yeates, CEO of Power-One, commented, "We are very pleased with Micrel's decision to join the Z-Alliance. The company brings a wealth of expertise in semiconductor design and manufacturing that further enhances the position of the Z-Alliance as a leader in digital power conversion and power management. Micrel's MIC68000 line of high performance linear regulators augments Z-One products manufactured by other members of the Z-Alliance, giving users more choices and a true open-architecture solution for managing all power in a system."

"Micrel is thrilled to join the Z-Alliance. We recognize Power-One as one of the leaders in the field of digital power," noted Ralf Muenster, Micrel's director of marketing for power products. "Micrel's MIC68000 family integrates seamlessly with the Z-One Digital Power Architecture and extends the benefits of the architecture to the lower current rails. This results in reduced cost and development time for our customers."