Microchip has introduced the PAC1761 and PAC1861 families of 65 V “energy-aware” digital power monitors aimed at 48 V power architectures used in AI/data center, networking, automotive, and industrial systems. The devices are designed to measure instantaneous voltage and current while also tracking accumulated energy over time, a combination intended to help 48 V platforms respond to changing load conditions.
The PAC1761 and PAC1861 families support up to 65 V measurement headroom and include 75 V spike protection for transient survivability in 48 V environments. Microchip is offering the parts in two resolution tiers: the 12-bit PAC1761 and the 16-bit PAC1861.
On the monitoring and control side, the devices include programmable alerts for voltage, current, and power excursions. They also add step-limit detection for identifying sudden load changes, plus configurable accumulated-energy thresholds that can be used to trigger actions based on longer-term energy behavior, not just momentary readings.
For data center and AI infrastructure engineers, the key practical point is that 48 V distribution pushes more power closer to the load, so transient behavior and protection margins become first-order design constraints. A monitor that combines headroom, spike tolerance, and accumulated-energy tracking can reduce the amount of external instrumentation and glue logic needed to build guardrails around power excursions, especially when load steps are frequent.
Microchip lists target applications including AI/data center, server, networking, telecom/Power over Ethernet (PoE), industrial, automotive, and 48 V power distribution systems. Package options include VDFN-8 (similar to SOT23-8), VDFN-10, and MSOP-10, with automotive-orderable variants. The company also calls out pin-compatible options intended to let designers move between devices as requirements, availability, cost, or performance change.
“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. Pazul added that the PAC1761 and PAC1861 families are meant to support both instantaneous measurements and longer-term energy consumption and availability tracking.
Development support includes the EV12R33A evaluation board, a Python command line interface (CLI) with library, a Linux driver, and a generic C library with multiple MCU code examples. Microchip says the PAC1761 and PAC1861 family devices are available now, starting at $0.56 each in 10,000-unit quantities for the PAC1761T-3E/E3 and PAC1861T-1E/3P (MSOP-10). The EV12R33A evaluation board is priced at $49.
Source: Microchip
