Microchip Technology has introduced the PAC1761 and PAC1861 families of 65V energy-aware digital power monitors for automotive, AI and data centre, networking and industrial applications using 48V power architectures. As systems move toward 48V designs to improve efficiency and support higher power requirements, designers need to monitor not only instantaneous voltage and current but also energy consumption over time. The new devices combine power measurement with 65V measurement capability and 75V transient spike protection to support reliable operation in higher-voltage systems.
The PAC1761 and PAC1861 provide accumulated power measurement data that can help systems respond to changing energy conditions. The devices also offer programmable alerts for voltage, current and power excursions, step-limit detection for identifying sudden load changes, and configurable accumulated-energy thresholds.
“The industry conversation is shifting from measuring power at a single point in time to understanding and responding to energy behavior across an entire system and its lifecycle,” said Keith Pazul, vice president of Microchip’s mixed-signal linear business unit.
“The PAC1761 and PAC1861 families are designed to help customers build better performing and more reliable 48V systems that can measure instantaneous conditions and understand energy consumption and availability over time. These scalable, low-power solutions reduce monitoring overhead and include pin-compatible package options that improve source flexibility while reducing design risk,” he added.
The devices are designed for automotive, AI and data centres, networking, industrial systems, servers, telecommunications, Power over Ethernet (PoE) and 48V power distribution applications. The PAC1761 provides 12-bit measurement resolution, while the PAC1861 offers 16-bit resolution. Both families are available in VDFN-8 packages similar to SOT23-8, VDFN-10 and MSOP-10 packages. Automotive-orderable variants are also available.
Pin-compatible package options allow designers to move between devices based on system requirements, availability, cost and performance without extensive redesign. This can also help reduce qualification time and design risk. Microchip said the devices are designed to provide additional operating margin for 48V architectures, where higher measurement headroom and transient protection are required.
Development support for the new devices includes the EV12R33A evaluation board, a Python Command Line Interface with library, a Linux driver and a generic C library with multiple MCU code examples. The PAC1761 and PAC1861 add energy accumulation and monitoring capabilities to Microchip’s digital power monitoring portfolio, giving designers tools to track power conditions and energy use in systems that require higher voltage measurement capability and protection against transient events.
Microchip Technology is widely recognized for its semiconductor, embedded systems, and timing solutions used across automotive, industrial, aerospace, communications, and consumer electronics applications. Through ongoing innovation in frequency control and precision timing technologies, the company aims to support next-generation electronic systems that demand higher performance, lower power consumption, and improved operational resilience.
