Feb 2004 Compact, Versatile, Accurate, 3-State Programmable Power Supply Supervisors

DESIGN FEATURES
Compact, Versatile, Accurate,
3-State Programmable Power
by Eko T. Lisuwandi
Supply Supervisors
Introduction
Many modern electronic systems must
know when the power supply (or supplies) is present and stable before start
up. A power supply monitor fills this
need by generating a Power-Good
signal when all is ready. Likewise,
once running, most systems require
that the supply monitor indicate
when the power supply has dropped
to a minimum threshold—to prevent
unreliable operation and possibly
initialize housekeeping operations.
An accurate supply monitor helps to
avoid spurious resets and increases
up-time (see sidebar).
Four new power supply supervisors
improve system reliability by offering
very accurate reset thresholds. They
save design time, production costs and
board space with simple interfaces and
extremely low part count.
The LTC2904, LTC2905, LTC2906
and LTC2907 dual supervisors can
simultaneously monitor two supply
voltages with 1.5% threshold accuracy
over temperature. The LTC2904 and
LTC2905 offer nine user-selectable
2-voltage combinations from the following: 5.0V, 3.3V, 2.5V, 1.8V, 1.5V,
1.2V and 1.0V. The LTC2906 and
LTC2907 offer one adjustable input
5V
DC/DC
CONVERTER
SYSTEM
LOGIC
3.3V
V1
V2
LTC2904
0.1µF
0.1µF
S1
GND
S2
RST
TOL
RST
SECONDARY RESET INDICATOR
RESET BUS SHARED WITH OTHER DEVICES
Figure 1. Fixed 5V, 3.3V supply monitor with 5% tolerance
and another user-selectable input,
which can be either 5.0V, 3.3V or 2.5V.
All four parts can be programmed to
have either a 5%, 7.5% or 10% power
supply tolerance.
Simple 3-state input pins (three in
the LTC2904 and LTC2905, two in the
LTC2906 and LTC2907) perform the
threshold and tolerance programming.
The part programmability removes the
need to qualify, source and stock different parts for different combinations of
supply voltages, providing tremendous
versatility. These new parts require no
software, no calibration and no trimming. Furthermore, the simple 3-state
programming interface eliminates
any need for external components,
therefore saving additional costs and
board space.
Other available features include a
user-adjustable reset time-out period
via an external capacitor (LTC2905
and LTC2907), or an internal capacitor for a fixed 200ms reset time-out
period (LTC2904 and LTC2906). All
four devices also include early availability of the reset signal so that it
can be used as a reliable POR signal
during power-up. In order to ensure
this early availability, power must
be applied to the monitor circuitry
early in the power-up phase. In the
LTC2904 and LTC2905 power is derived automatically from the greater
of the voltages on the V1 and V2 inputs. Similarly in the LTC2906 and
Table 1. Feature summary
Feature
LTC2904
Programmable Input Threshold Combinations
Low Voltage Adjustable Input (0.5V)
LTC2905
LTC2906
9
—
Monitored Supply Tolerance
LTC2907
3
—
User Selectable between 5%, 7.5% and 10%
Open Drain RST
Open Drain RST
—
Reset Time-Out Period
Fixed 200ms
Adjustable
Optional Supply Pin to High Availability Supply
—
—
Package
Linear Technology Magazine • February 2004
—
Fixed 200ms
Adjustable
8-Lead Plastic SOT-23 or 8-Lead Plastic DFN (3mm × 2mm)
19
DESIGN FEATURES
Why is Threshold Accuracy Important?
5V
NOMINAL
SUPPLY VOLTAGE
SUPPLY TOLERANCE
MINIMUM
RELIABLE
SYSTEM
VOLTAGE
IDEAL
SUPERVISOR
THRESHOLD
4.5V
±1.5%
THRESHOLD
BAND
–10%
4.425V
–11.5%
4.35V
–13%
REGION OF POTENTIAL MALFUNCTION
WITH 2.5% MONITOR
4.250V
±2.5%
THRESHOLD
BAND
–15%
Threshold band diagram. Improved under-voltage monitor
threshold accuracy translates to improved system reliability.
LTC2907, power is derived automatically from the greater of the voltages
on the V1 and VCC inputs. With V1,
V2 or VCC at 1V or greater, the RST
output logic low is 0.3V (max) while
sinking 100µA.
TYPICAL THRESHOLD ACCURACY (%)
1.5
1
0.5
Therefore, the LTC2904, LTC2905,
LTC2906 and LTC2907 supervisors
offer micropower operation, small size
and high accuracy. The highly integrated functionality makes these devices
easy to design into systems requiring
two or more supervisory applications.
Table 1 shows a feature summary of
these four devices and Figure 1 shows
a typical dual supply monitor application using the LTC2904.
Noise Sensitivity
0
–0.5
–1
–1.5
–60 –40 –20 0
20 40 60
TEMPERATURE (°C)
Figure 2. Typical threshold
accuracy over temperature
20
The bottom of the supply tolerance band, at 4.5V (5V
minus 10%), is the exact voltage at which a perfectly accurate supervisor would generate a reset. Such an ideal
supervisor does not exist—the actual reset threshold
varies over a specified band (±1.5% for the LTC2904,
LTC2905, LTC2906 and LTC2907 ). Figure 2 shows
the typical threshold accuracy of the four new devices
over temperature.
To prevent spurious resets, the nominal reset threshold of the supervisor is set below the minimum supply
voltage, just enough that the reset threshold band and
the power supply tolerance bands do not overlap. If the
two bands overlap, the supervisor could generate a false
or nuisance reset when the power supply is within its
specified tolerance band (say, at 4.6V).
To prevent band overlap using a monitor with ±1.5%
reset threshold accuracy, the10% reset thresholds are
actually set to 11.5% below the nominal input voltage.
For the 5V input, the typical threshold is 4.425V, or
75mV below the ideal threshold of 4.5V. The actual
threshold is guaranteed to lie in the band between
4.35V and 4.5V over temperature.
The system must work reliably down to the low
end of the threshold band or risk malfunction before
a reset signal is properly issued. In our 5V example,
the system ICs must work down to 4.35V with a
1.5% accurate supervisor. The same system using
a ±2.5% accurate supervisor must operate down to
4.25V, which is 15% lower than the nominal supply
voltage, increasing the required system voltage margin
and the probability of system malfunction.
80
100
In any supervisory application, supply noise riding on the monitored DC
voltage can cause spurious resets,
particularly when the monitored
voltage is near the reset threshold. A
less desirable but common solution to
this problem is to introduce hysteresis
around the nominal threshold, but
hysteresis introduces an error term
in the threshold accuracy. Therefore,
a ±2.5% accurate monitor with ±1.0%
hysteresis is equivalent to a ±3.5%
monitor with no hysteresis.
700
TYPICAL TRANSIENT DURATION (µs)
Supervisor reset threshold accuracy affects the reliability of power-supply-sensitive systems. Diminished
accuracy reduces reliability and corresponds to a system
that must operate reliably over a wider voltage range,
which complicates system design. Improved accuracy
decreases the voltage range required for reliable system
operation, simplifying the design.
Consider a 5V system with a ±10% power supply
tolerance band (see the figure in this sidebar). System
ICs powered by this supply must operate reliably within
this band (and a little more, as explained below).
600
500
400
RESET OCCURS
ABOVE CURVE
300
200
100
0
0.1
100
1
10
COMPARATOR OVERDRIVE VOLTAGE (% OF VRTX)
Figure 3. Typical transient duration
vs comparator overdrive
Linear Technology Magazine • February 2004
DESIGN FEATURES
DC/DC
CONVERTER
SYSTEM
LOGIC
V2
V1
LTC2904
0.1µF
S1
S2
GND
TOL
3
11
0.1µF
6 FAIRCHILD
74LVX125
11
1, 2, 4,
5, 8, 9
RST
RST
Figure 4. LTC2904 in margining application
The four new supervisors discussed
here take a different approach to solve
this problem. The first line of defense
against this spurious reset for these
supervisors is a first order low pass
filter at the output of each of the comparators. Thus, the comparator output
is integrated over time before triggering the output logic. Any transient at
the input of the comparator must be
of sufficient magnitude and duration
before it triggers a change in the output logic. Figure 3 shows the typical
transient duration versus comparator
overdrive required to trip the comparators (overdrive shown as a percentage
of the trip threshold VRTX).
The second line of defense is the reset time-out period tRST (200ms for the
LTC2904 and LTC2906 and adjustable
for the LTC2905 and LTC2907 using
an external capacitor). This time-out
period eliminates the effect of any supply noise at a frequency above 1/tRST
on the RST and RST outputs.
When either V1 or V2 drops below its programmed threshold, the
RST pin asserts low (RST weakly
pulls high). Then when the supply
recovers above the programmed
threshold, the reset-pulse-generator timer starts counting while RST
stays low. If the supply remains above
the programmed threshold when the
timer finishes counting, the RST pin
weakly pulls high (RST asserts low).
However, if the supply falls below the
programmed threshold at any time
while the timer is still counting, the
timer resets. The timer begins counting
again when the supply next rises above
the programmed threshold.
Note that this second line of defense
is only effective for a rising supply and
does not affect the sensitivity of the
Linear Technology Magazine • February 2004
system to a falling supply. Therefore,
the first line of defense that works
for both rising and falling supplies
is necessary. These two approaches
prevent spurious resets caused by
supply noise without sacrificing the
threshold accuracy.
Although the comparators in all four
supply monitors have built-in glitch
filtering, bypass capacitors on V1 and
V2/VCC are recommended since the
greater of V1 or V2/VCC is also the
internal VCC for the chip (a 0.1µF ceramic capacitor is satisfactory in most
applications). A decoupling capacitor
on the VADJ pin of the LTC2906 and the
LTC2907 is allowed and recommended
in extremely noisy environments.
3-State Programming Pins
The three 3-state input pins (S1,
S2 and TOL ) in the LTC2904 and
LTC2905 , and the two 3-state input
pins (S1 and TOL) in LTC2906 and
Table 2. LTC2904 and LTC2905 voltage
threshold programming
V1
V2
S1
S2
5.0
3.3
V1
V1
3.3
2.5
Open*
GND
3.3
1.8
V1
Open*
3.3
1.5
Open*
V1
3.3
1.2
Open*
Open*
2.5
1.8
GND
GND
2.5
1.5
GND
Open*
2.5
1.2
GND
V1
2.5
1.0
V1
GND
*Open = open circuit or driven by a TRI-STATE®
buffer in high impedance state with leakage current
less than 10µA.
LTC2907 should be connected to GND,
V1 or left unconnected during normal
operation. Note that when left unconnected, the maximum leakage current
allowable from the pin to either GND
or V1 is 10µA.
In margining applications, all of the
3-state input pins can be driven using
a TRI-STATE buffer. The low and high
output of the TRI-STATE buffer must
satisfy the VIL (0.4V) and VIH (1.4V)
of the 3-state input pins. Moreover,
when the driving TRI-STATE buffer
is in the high impedance state, the
maximum leakage current allowed
from the pin to either GND or V1 is
10µA. Figure 4 shows the LTC2904
used in a margining application with
all 3-state pins driven by a TRI-STATE
buffer (Fairchild 74LVX125).
Monitor Programming
Connecting S1 and S2 to GND, V1 or
leaving them open selects the LTC2904
and LTC2905 input voltage combinations. Table 2 shows the nine possible
combinations of nominal input voltages for the LTC2904 and LTC2905,
and their corresponding S1, S2 connections.
Similarly, for the LTC2906 and
LTC2907, connecting S1 to GND, V1 or
leaving them open selects the V1 input
voltage threshold. Table 3 shows the
three possible combinations of the V1
nominal input voltage for the LTC2906
and LTC2907, and their corresponding
S1 connection.
Tolerance Programming
Tolerance of either 5%, 7.5% or 10%
for the supply is set at the TOL pin.
The tolerance applies to both the V1
and V2 input voltages for the LTC2904
and LTC2905, or the V1 and VADJ
Table 3. LTC2906 and LTC2907 voltage
threshold programming
V1
S1
5.0
V1
3.3
Open
2.5
GND
TRI-STATE is a registered trademark of National
Semiconductor Corp.
21
DESIGN FEATURES
Table 4. Tolerance programming
TOL
5%
V1
7.5%
Open
10%
GND
The Adjustable Input
(LTC2906, LTC2907)
The non-inverting input on the VADJ
comparator is set to 0.5V (Figure 5)
when the TOL pin is set high (5%
tolerance). The high impedance inverting input directly ties to the VADJ
pin. In typical applications, this pin
connects to a tap point on an external
resistive divider between the positive
Table 5. Suggested 1% resistor
values for the VADJ inputs
VSUPPLY (V) VTRIP (V)
22
R1 (k)
R2 (k)
12
11.25
2150
100
10
9.4
1780
100
8
7.5
1400
100
7.5
7
1300
100
6
5.6
1020
100
5
4.725
845
100
3.3
3.055
511
100
3
2.82
464
100
2.5
2.325
365
100
1.8
1.685
237
100
1.5
1.410
182
100
1.2
1.120
124
100
1.0
0.933
86.6
100
0.9
0.840
68.1
100
0.8
0.750
49.9
100
0.7
0.655
30.9
100
0.6
0.561
12.1
100
Once the resistor divider is set in
the 5% tolerance mode, there is no
need to change the divider for the other
tolerance modes (7.5%, 10%) because
the internal reference is scaled accordingly. Table 5 shows suggested 1%
resistor values for various adjustable
applications.
–
VADJ
R2
1%
 R1 
VTRIP(5%) = 0.5V 1 + 
 R2 
input voltages for the LTC2906 and
LTC2907. A larger tolerance lowers
the trip threshold. Table 4 shows
the tolerances selection corresponding to a particular connection at the
TOL pin.
LTC2906/LTC2907
R1
1%
+
+
–
0.5V
Figure 5. Setting the adjustable trip threshold
User Adjustable Reset
Time-Out Period
Note that both RST and RST have
weak internal pull-ups to internal VCC
and a strong pull-down to ground. The
weak pull-up and strong pull-down
arrangement allows these two pins
to have open-drain behavior while
possessing several other beneficial
characteristics. The weak pull-ups
eliminate the need for external pull
up resistors when the rise time on
these pins is not critical. On the other
hand, the open-drain RST configuration allows for wired-OR connections
and can be useful when more than
one signal needs to pull down on the
RST line.
CTMR = tRST • 110 [pF/ms]
Applications
For example, using a standard
capacitor value of 22nF would give a
22000/110 = 200ms delay.
Figure 6 shows the desired delay
time as a function of the value of the
timer capacitor that should be used.
Leaving the TMR pin open sets the
reset time-out to approximately 200µs.
The only limitation to the length of the
period is the value of the capacitor
and its leakage. The TMR capacitor
does not charge if the leakage current
exceeds the TMR charging current of
2µA (typical).
3.3V, 1.2V Dual Supply Monitor at
7.5% Tolerance with LED Power
Good Indicator
Figure 8 shows the LTC2904 configured as a dual monitor in an
application for a system using a 3.3V
and 1.2V supply. In this particular
application the monitor is configured
to have 7.5% tolerance. With a guaranteed 2.5mA pull-down current at
the RST pin, an LED can be used in
series with a 499Ω pull-up resistor as
a power good indicator.
The reset time-out period (tRST) for
LTC2905 and LTC2907 is adjustable
in order to accommodate a variety of
applications. Connecting a capacitor,
CTMR, between the TMR pin and ground
sets tRST. The following formula determines the value of capacitor needed for
a particular reset time-out period:
Circuit Description
Internally all four new supervisors
include two extremely accurate
comparators, a bandgap reference,
accurate resistor ladders, TRI-STATE
detector, CMOS decoding logic, counters, and an oscillator. Figure 7 shows
the generic functional block diagram
representation for all four devices. Note
that only some of the pins shown in
the diagram are available in any one
supervisor (see Table 1).
10000
RESET TIME OUT PERIOD, tRST (ms)
Tolerance
VTRIP
voltage being monitored and ground.
The following formula obtains the
trip voltage at 5% tolerance from the
resistors value:
1000
100
10
1
0.1
10p
100p
1n
10n
CTMR (FARAD)
100n
1µ
Figure 6. Reset time out period
(tRST) vs capacitance (CTMR)
Linear Technology Magazine • February 2004
DESIGN FEATURES
LTC2905, LTC2907
TMR
LTC2904, LTC2905, LTC2906, LTC2907
VCCINT
V1
6µA
VCCINT
–
POWER
DETECT
RST
+
RESISTOR
NETWORK
V2/VCC
200ms
RESET PULSE
GENERATOR
–
V2
VCCINT
LTC2904, LTC2906
6µA
+
LTC2904, LTC2905
RST
VADJ
LTC2906, LTC2907
THREE-STATE DECODER
BAND GAP
REFERENCE
S1
S2
GND
TOL
LTC2904, LTC2905
Figure 7. Block diagram representation of LTC2904, LTC2905, LTC2906 and LTC2907
3.3V, 2.5V, 0.8V, 0.6V Quad Supply
Monitor with 5% Tolerance
Figure 9 shows an LTC2906 and an
LTC2907 cascaded together to monitor four voltages. In this particular
application, the two supervisors are
configured to monitor 3.3V, 2.5V, 0.8V
and 0.6V, each with 5% tolerance. The
R
 S
 T
 outputs of the two supervisors are
wired-OR together to form a master
system reset. Because of the opendrain configuration on the RST pin,
the master system reset is low once
any of the four voltages goes below
their respective thresholds. The additional RST pin on the LTC2906 can
3.3V
V2
1.2V
V1
LTC2904
499Ω
LED
S2
RST
S1
RST
GND
TOL
0.1µF
SYSTEM
RESET
0.1µF
Figure 8. 3.3V, 1.2V monitor at 7.5% tolerance with LED power good indicator
0.8V
3.3V
49.9k
LTC2906
VADJ
V1
V1
12.1k
TOL LTC2907
VCC
TOL
0.6V
2.5V
0.1µF
0.1µF
VCC
VADJ
S1
100k
S1
GND
GND
RST
RST
100k
TMR
22nF
RST
MASTER SYSTEM RESET
SECONDARY
RESET
INDICATOR
Figure 9. Quad supply monitor for 3.3V, 2.5V, 0.8V, 0.6V with 5% tolerance
Linear Technology Magazine • February 2004
be used as a secondary reset indicator,
indicating which of the two supervisors issues the reset in a particular
reset condition.
A 22nF capacitor sets the reset
time-out period of the LTC2907 to
200ms for the 2.5V and 0.6V inputs.
The LTC2906 reset time-out period
is preprogrammed by an internal
capacitor to 200ms for the 3.3V and
0.8V inputs.
The VCC pins on both LTC2906 and
LTC2907 can be connected to any
highly available secondary supply of
at least 2.5V. Connecting the VCC pin
to a high-availability supply ensures
that the supervisors’ output is valid
for inputs at V1 and VADJ down to 0V.
However, connecting the VCC pin to
the V1 pin as shown in Figure 9 only
guarantees a valid supervisor output
for V1 input down to 1V.
5V, 3.3V Dual Supply Monitor with
Voltage Margining Application for
Automated On-board Testing
In high reliability system manufacturing and test, it is desirable to verify
the correct operation of electrical components at or below the rated power
supply tolerance. The supervisors
continued on page 31
23
DESIGN IDEAS
100
topology and lower input voltage, the
overall circuit efficiency increases to
90%. The PGOOD pin can drive an optional PMOS device at the output of the
boost regulator to disconnect the load
from the input during shutdown.
EFFICIENCY (%)
90
VIN = 12V
80
VIN = 19V
Layout Considerations
70
60
0
500
1000
1500
LOAD AT VLOGIC (mA)
Careful PC board layout is important for proper operation. Paths that
carry high switching current should
be short and wide to minimize parasitic inductance. In a buck regulator,
this loop includes the input capacitor,
internal power switch and Schottky
diode. In a boost regulator, this
loop includes the output capacitor,
internal power switch and Schottky
diode. In a SEPIC converter, this loop
includes the internal power switch,
flying capacitor, Schottky diode and
the output capacitor. Keep all the
loop compensation components and
feedback resistors away from the high
switching current paths. The LT1943
pinout was designed to facilitate PCB
2000
Figure 3. Total Circuit Efficiency of the power
supply in Figure 1 (load at AVDD: 500mA; load
at VON: 30mA; load at VOFF: 40mA).
and SEPIC regulators. The overall
efficiency is shown in Figure 3. The
converter uses all ceramic capacitors,
with X5R and X7R types recommended, as these materials maintain
capacitance over a wide temperature
range.
If the input voltage is 5V, a boost
regulator can be use in place of the
SEPIC to generate the AVDD supply.
With the higher efficiency of the boost
layout. Use a separate ground trace
to connect the ground return of the
compensation components and bottom feedback resistors to the signal
ground (SGND pin). Connect the SGND
to the power ground on the backside
of the IC. Keep the traces from the
center of the feedback resistors to
the corresponding FB pins as short
as possible. LT1943 has an exposed
ground pad on the backside of the IC
to reduce thermal resistance. A ground
plane with multiple vias into ground
layers should be placed underneath
and near the part to conduct heat away
from the IC.
Conclusion
The LT1943 provides compact power
supply solutions for TFT-LCD panels.
All four outputs come from switching
regulators for wide input voltage range
and minimum power dissipation. All
four circuits use only ceramic capacitors to minimize ripple, size and cost.
LTC2904, LTC2905, LTC2906 and LTC2907 continued from page 23
5V
DC/DC
CONVERTER
SYSTEM
LOGIC
3.3V
V1
SUPPLY
CONTROLLER
Conclusion
V2
LTC2905
VIN
0.1µF
THREE-STATE
S1
TMR
S2
GND
TOL
RST
0.1µF
22nF
Figure 10. 5V, 3.3V dual supply monitor with voltage
margining application for automated onboard testing
introduced here complement such
testing in two ways.
First, a test-module can provide
more supply headroom by lowering
the reset trip thresholds for automated
onboard testing. Using the 3-state programming input pin TOL, the global
supply tolerance can be set to 5%, 7.5%
or 10%. Figure 10 shows an LTC2905
used in such an application.
Second, the S1 and S2 pins can be
driven by 3-state outputs for a more
aggressive lowering of the trip threshLinear Technology Magazine • February 2004
part is again configured to monitor
5V and 3.3V.
old. For example, in Figure 10 the S1
and S2 pins are tied to V1 to configure
the part to monitor 5V and 3.3V. If
TRI-STATE buffers are added to drive
the S1 and S2 pins, these pins can be
set to GND during testing. Connecting S1 and S2 to GND configures the
LTC2905 to monitor 2.5V and 1.8V,
a significant change in trip threshold
from the 5V and 3.3V thresholds respectively. During normal operation,
the TRI-STATE buffers can set S1
and S2 back to V1 (High) so that the
The LTC2904, LTC2905, LTC2906
and LTC2907 micropower dual supervisors provide the space saving,
simplicity, versatility, accuracy and
reliability required in a wide variety
multi-voltage monitoring applications. Input supply combinations are
programmable without external components. The LTC2906 and LTC2907
also include a low voltage positive adjustable threshold. The comparators
are 1.5% accurate over temperature
and feature built-in noise rejection.
Reset state is correct for internal VCC
down to 1V. Reset time-out periods in
the LTC2905 and LTC2907 are user
adjustable with external capacitors.
Power supply margining features include real-time supply tolerance and
voltage threshold selections.
31