V18N4 - JANUARY

LINEAR TECHNOLOGY
JANUARY 2009
IN THIS ISSUE…
COVER ARTICLE
2-Phase, Non-Synchronous Boost
Controller Simplifies Design of
High Voltage, High Current Supplies
...........................................................1
Muthu Subramanian and Tick Houk
Linear in the News… ...........................2
DESIGN FEATURES
Reliable Precision Voltage Reference
with 5ppm/°C Drift is Factory Trimmed
and Tested at –40°C, 25°C and 125°C
...........................................................7
Michael B. Anderson and Brendan Whelan
Ultralow Noise 15mm ×15mm × 2.8mm
µModule™ Step-Down Regulators Meet
the Class B of CISPR 22 and Yield
High Efficiency at up to 36VIN ..........10
Judy Sun, Jian Yin, Sam Young and Henry
Zhang
Dual Hot Swap™ Controller Brings
Digital Monitoring to AdvancedTCA,
µTCA and AMC Applications ..............15
Josh Simonson
±32V Triple-Output Supply for LCDs,
CCDs and LEDs Includes Fault
Protection in a 3mm × 3mm QFN ......20
Eko T Lisuwandi
PD Interface for PoE+ Includes 25.5W
Classification and Protection Features
in a Low Profile 4mm × 3mm DFN
.........................................................26
Kirk Su
DESIGN IDEAS
....................................................30–42
(complete list on page 30)
Design Tools ......................................43
Sales Offices .....................................44
VOLUME XVIII NUMBER 4
2-Phase, Non-Synchronous
Boost Controller Simplifies
Design of High Voltage,
High Current Supplies
by Muthu Subramanian and Tick Houk
Introduction
Due to an increasing need for high
power step-up power supplies in automotive and industrial applications,
Linear Technology has recently introduced the LTC3862 family of 2-phase,
single output non-synchronous boost
DC/DC controllers. The LTC3862
provides a lexible, high performance
step-up controller in three convenient
package options: GN24, 5mm × 5mm
24-pin exposed pad QFN and 24-pin
exposed pad TSSOP. The LTC3862 is
optimized for power MOSFETs that
require 5V gate drive, whereas the
LTC3862-1 is designed for 10V gate
drive MOSFETs.
The LTC3862 utilizes a ixed frequency, peak current mode control
topology to drive ground-referenced
power MOSFETs, each with a current sense resistor in its source. The
use of a precision transconductance
(gm) error ampliier allows for easy
loop compensation and facilitates the
parallel connection of several ICs in
multiphase applications. The operating frequency can be programmed
from 75kHz to 500kHz using a single
resistor, and a phase lock loop allows
the switching frequency to be synchronized to an external clock over a
50kHz to 650kHz range.
The LTC3862 is a versatile
control IC optimized for a
wide variety of step-up
DC/DC converter
applications. This makes
it easy to optimize
efficiency, size and weight
of the power supply, while
keeping component and
manufacturing costs low.
A 24V, 5A
Car Audio Power Supply
Today’s high end car audio systems
require signiicant power to drive
upwards of seven speakers inside
the passenger compartment. High
frequency speakers such as tweeters
are generally very eficient, but low
frequency drivers such as subwoofers
require substantial power to achieve
high volume. In addition to the need
for high power, the car audio system
should be itmmune to changes in
the battery voltage. These requirements can be met through the use
of a step-up converter for the power
continued on page L, LT, LTC, LTM, Burst Mode, OPTI-LOOP, Over-The-Top and PolyPhase are registered trademarks of Linear Technology
Corporation. Adaptive Power, Bat-Track, BodeCAD, C-Load, DirectSense, Easy Drive, FilterCAD, Hot Swap, LinearView,
µModule, Micropower SwitcherCAD, Multimode Dimming, No Latency ΔΣ, No Latency Delta-Sigma, No RSENSE, Operational
Filter, PanelProtect, PowerPath, PowerSOT, SmartStart, SoftSpan, Stage Shedding, SwitcherCAD, ThinSOT, TimerBlox, True
Color PWM, UltraFast and VLDO are trademarks of Linear Technology Corporation. Other product names may be trademarks
of the companies that manufacture the products.
L LINEAR IN THE NEWS
Linear in the News…
Linear Unveils Battery Stack Monitor
for Hybrid/Electric Vehicles
In September, Linear announced an innovative new product
focused on the challenge of monitoring a stack of batteries for applications such as hybrid/electric vehicles and
battery backup systems. The company announced the
product in a series of press meetings in North America,
Europe and Asia, including press conferences in Munich
and Beijing, as well as meetings in Silicon Valley, London,
Paris, Stockholm, Seoul and Tokyo. Linear has already
seen signiicant customer interest in the device for a broad
range of applications.
The LTC6802’s maximum measurement error is less
than 0.25%, which allows cells to operate over their full
charge and discharge limits, thus maximizing lifetime
and useful battery capacity. The LTC6802 monitors each
cell for undervoltage and overvoltage conditions, communicating to a host controller via a 1MHz serial interface.
To address overcharge conditions, each of the LTC6802’s
inputs supports a MOSFET switch for quick individual
cell discharge.
The LTC6802 incorporates a number of other features
in its 8mm × 12mm surface mount package, including
temperature sensor inputs, GPIO lines and a pin-accessible precision voltage reference.
The LTC6802 is fully speciied for operation from –40°C
to 85°C and offers diagnostics and fault detection. The
combined robustness, exceptional precision and tiny
package directly address the critical requirements of high
powered, high performance battery systems.
EDN Debuts Jim Williams Article Archive
The anticipated migration to zero emission vehicles
awaits the development of viable high performance battery
systems. Lithium batteries offer the promise of high energy
density, but improving reliability, prolonging lifetime and
meeting cost targets require sophisticated battery management electronics. Battery management electronics must
accurately monitor and balance each individual battery cell
in long, high voltage battery strings—the type required for
high power applications. This is a signiicant electronics
challenge, combining automotive demands with the task
of extracting small differential voltages from 0V to more
than 1000V of common mode voltage. To address this
need, Linear Technology developed the LTC6802.
A single LTC6802 multicell battery monitoring IC is
capable of precisely measuring the voltages of up to 12
series-connected battery cells. For longer battery strings,
multiple LTC6802s can be placed in series to monitor large
numbers of battery stacks. The LTC6802’s novel stacking
technique allows multiple LTC6802s to be placed in series
without optocouplers or isolators. Stacked LTC6802s can
precisely measure all battery cell voltages, independent of
battery string size, within 13ms.
2
EDN magazine has launched an archive of articles on their
website, entitled, “How-to articles and Design Ideas from
EDN’s most revered contributor, Jim Williams.” Thus far,
EDN has posted Jim Williams’ in-depth applications articles
from the present, going back to 1994—42 articles so far.
The magazine has plans to continue building the archive,
eventually posting articles as far back as 1980.
This work is a tribute to the signiicant contributions
made to the electronics design community by Jim Williams
and the yeoman efforts of EDN’s analog editor, Paul Rako
to make these technical articles available to a wide range of
readers worldwide. You can access the articles and watch
the archive as it grows at www.edn.com/jimwilliams.
Linear Technology at IIC China Conference
Linear will have a booth at three IIC Conference locations
in the coming months: February 26–27 in Shenzhen, March
2–3 in Xian, and March 5–6 in Beijing.
At the conference, Linear will focus on products for the
industrial and automotive markets. China continues to
be a signiicant growth market for Linear in a number of
key product areas, including:
q Data converters for industrial applications
q Power products and signal conditioning products for
industrial applications
q Power µModule™ DC/DC regulators
q Products for automotive applications, including:
— Multicell battery stack monitors
— Current sense ampliiers
— LED drivers L
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN FEATURES L
LTC862, continued from page VIN
5V TO 24V
L1
4.2µH
CDEP145-4R2
D1
MBRD835L
1nF
GATE1
SENSE1
SLOPE
BLANK
10nF
24.9k
84.5k
22µF 25V
22µF 25V
1µF
SS
LTC3862
26.7k
ITH
FB
100pF
+
RUN
FREQ
1nF
0.007Ω
100µF
1W
35V
10nF
PHASEMODE SENSE1–
45.3k
Q1
Si7386DP
10Ω
+
+
3V8
DMAX
22µF 25V
VIN
100µF 10µF 50V
35V
4.7µF
INTVCC
6.98k
10Ω
PGND
SGND
130k
VOUT
Q2
Si7386DP
GATE2
SENSE2–
CLKOUT
SYNC
PLLFLTR
0.007Ω
1W
VOUT
24V
5A (MAX)
10µF 50V
10µF 50V
10µF 50V
10nF
L2
4.2µH
CDEP145-4R2
SENSE2+
D2
MBRD835L
Figure 1. A 120W 2-phase, 24V/5A output car audio power supply
ampliiers. Figure 1 shows a 2-phase,
24V/5A output audio power supply
that operates from a car battery, and
Figure 2 shows the eficiency curve
for this converter.
A 2-phase design with an operating
frequency of 300kHz allows the use of
signiicantly smaller output capacitors
and inductors than a single-phase
design. To keep the output ripple
voltage below 60mV peak-to-peak and
satisfy the RMS ripple current demand,
a combination of two 100µF, 35V
aluminum electrolytic capacitors are
connected in parallel with four 10µF,
50V ceramic capacitors. The 4.2µH,
10.6A inductor (CDEP145-4R2) from
Sumida Inductors is chosen for its high
100
A 2-phase design with an
operating frequency of
300kHz allows the use of
significantly smaller output
capacitors and inductors
than a single-phase design.
Also, the output current
of this converter can
easily be scaled by adding
additional power stages
and controllers, without
modifying the basic design.
10000
VIN = 12V
VOUT = 24V
95
EFFICIENCY (%)
POWER LOSS
1000
85
80
75
100
POWER LOSS (mW)
EFFICIENCY
90
ILOAD
5A/DIV
IL1
5A/DIV
IL2
5A/DIV
VOUT
500mV/DIV
1000
LOAD CURRENT (mA)
100
10000
Figure 2. Efficiency and power loss vs load
current for the 120W car audio power supply
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
VIN = 12V
VOUT = 24V
ILOAD = 2A TO 5A
500µs/DIV
Figure 3. Inductor current waveforms in load
step show accurate current matching between
load sharing channels
saturation current rating and surface
mount package design.
The MOSFET is a Vishay Si7386DP,
which has a maximum RDS(ON) of 7mΩ
at VGS = 10V and 9.5mΩ at VGS =
4.5V. The 35V, 8A Schottky from On
Semiconductor (MBRD835L) offers
surface mount capability and small
size. It should be noted that the output
current of a converter such as this can
easily be scaled by adding additional
power stages and controllers, without
modifying the basic design.
Excellent Channel-to-Channel
Current Matching Ensures a
Balanced Thermal Design
In order to provide the best channelto-channel inductor current matching,
the LTC3862 is designed to make the
transfer function from the output of
the error ampliier (the ITH pin) to the
current comparator inputs (SENSE+
and SENSE– pins) as accurate as
possible. The speciication for the
maximum current sense threshold is
75mV, and the channel-to-channel
(VSENSE1 – VSENSE2) mismatch speciication is ±10mV, over the –40°C to 150°C
temperature range. This excellent
matching ensures balanced inductor
currents and a thermally stable design,
even with multiple regulators daisychained together. Figure 3 shows how
3
L DESIGN FEATURES
SW1
50V/DIV
SW1
10V/DIV
SW1
50V/DIV
IL1
5A/DIV
SW2
50V/DIV
IL2
5A/DIV
VOUT
100mV/DIV
AC COUPLED
SW2
50V/DIV
SW2
10V/DIV
IL1
2A/DIV
IL2
2A/DIV
IL1
1A/DIV
IL2
1A/DIV
VIN = 12V
VOUT = 48V
ILOAD = 100mA
VIN = 24V
2.5µs/DIV
VOUT = 48V, 1.5A
Figure 4. Inductor current and switch node
voltage waveforms at heavy load, continuous
conduction mode (CCM)
well matched the inductor currents are
for the car audio power supply during
a load step.
Constant Frequency
Operation over a Wide
Load Current Range
1µs/DIV
VIN = 17V
1µs/DIV
VOUT = 24V
LIGHT LOAD (10mA)
Figure 5. Inductor and switch node voltage
waveforms at light load, discontinuous
conduction mode (DCM)
Figure 6. Inductor and switch node voltage
waveforms at light load (pulse-skipping)
the better, since constant frequency
operation is maintained down to this
threshold. In Figure 6 the onset of
pulse-skipping occurs at a relatively
low 0.2% of the maximum load current.
For systems where synchronization
to an external clock is required, the
LTC3862 contains a phase lock loop
(PLL). Figure 7 illustrates the switching waveforms with an external sync
signal applied to the SYNC pin.
SYNC
10V/DIV
GATE1
10V/DIV
GATE2
10V/DIV
Constant frequency operation eases
the task of input and output ilter
design, and prevents a power supply
from becoming audible at light load. At
heavy load, the inductor currents are
generally continuous (CCM), as shown
in Figure 4. At light load, the inductor
current will go discontinuous (DCM),
as shown in Figure 5. When the load
current drops below what can be supported by the minimum on-time of the
converter (approximately 180ns), the
controller will begin to skip cycles in
order to maintain output regulation,
CLKOUT
10V/DIV
VIN = 12V
2µs/DIV
VOUT = 48V 1A
PHASEMODE = SGND
Figure 7. Synchronizing the LTC3862 to an
external clock using the phase lock loop
Strong Gate Drivers and a
High Current Internal LDO
as shown in Figure 6. This is a normal Complete the Package
operating condition that doesn’t cause
any problems in the system, as long as
the peak inductor current is low.
In general, the lower the load current at the onset of pulse-skipping,
VIN
8.5V TO 28V
L1
58µH
PA2050-583
D1
B3100
1nF
SENSE1+
BLANK
RUN
FREQ
150k
6.8µF 50V
6.8µF 50V
1µF
SS
LTC3862-1
45.3k
INTVCC
5.62k
10Ω
SGND
324k
CLKOUT
0.020Ω
1W
2.2µF
100V
s6
Q2
HAT2267H
10nF
SENSE2+
L2
58µH
PA2050-583
D2
B3100
Figure 8. An 8.5V–28V input, 72V/1.5A output low emissions diesel fuel injector actuator supply
4
VOUT
20V/DIV
PGND
GATE2
SENSE2–
SYNC
PLLFLTR
VOUT
72V
47µF
100V
4.7µF
100pF
FB
6.8µF 50V
VIN
ITH
VOUT
47µF
100V
24.9k
0.1µF
1.5nF
0.020Ω
1W
10nF
PHASEMODE SENSE1–
45.3k
10Ω
+
SLOPE
Q1
HAT2267H
GATE1
+
3V8
DMAX
In high output voltage systems, switching losses in the power MOSFETs can
sometimes exceed the conduction
losses. In order to reduce switching losses as much as possible, the
LTC3862 incorporates strong gate
drivers. The PMOS pull-up transistor has a typical RDS(ON) of 2.1Ω, and
the NMOS pull-down transistor has
a typical RDS(ON) of 0.7Ω. In addition
to reducing switching losses, these
strong gate drivers allow two power
MOSFETs to be connected in paral-
IL
5A/DIV
VIN = 24V
VOUT = 72V
500µs/DIV
Figure 9. Load step waveforms for
diesel fuel injector actuator supply
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN FEATURES L
lel for each channel in high current
applications.
In order to simplify operation in
single-supply systems, the LTC3862
includes a 5V low dropout regulator
(LDO) that can support output currents up to 50mA. The use of a PMOS
output transistor ensures that the full
supply voltage is available for driving
the power MOSFETs under low supply
conditions, such as during automotive cold cranking. An undervoltage
lockout circuit detects when the LDO
output voltage falls below 3.3V and
shuts off the gate drivers, thereby
protecting the power MOSFETs from
switching at low VGS.
The LTC3862 is capable of operation
over a 4V to 36V input voltage range,
making it suitable for a wide variety
of boost applications.
Lower Emissions Diesel Fuel
Injection: A 8.5V–28V Input,
72V, 1.5A Output Boost
Tomorrow’s low emissions diesel
fuel injection systems require more
precise and faster actuation of the
fuel injectors than do their gasoline
counterparts. Stepping up the voltage
VIN
4.5V TO 5.5V
L1
2.7µH
CDEP145-2R7
of the system is an easy way to achieve
fast actuation by increasing di/dt in
the actuator, since the energy stored
on a capacitor is CV2/2. Boosting the
car battery voltage from 13V to 72V signiicantly increases the di/dt, enabling
faster actuation. The actuation of the
injector typically discharges the supply
capacitor by 10V–20V, after which the
boost converter recharges the output
cap to 72V. Figure 8 illustrates this
8.5V to 28V input, 72V/1.5A output
2-phase boost converter. Figure 9 illustrates the load step for a simulated
injector.
D1
MBRB2515LT41
1nF
GATE1
SLOPE
BLANK
10nF
ON/OFF
CONTROL
0.005Ω
220µF
1W
16V
PHASEMODE SENSE1–
+
45.3k
FREQ
RUN
10nF
SS
10nF
Q1
HAT2165H
10Ω
SENSE1+
LTC3862
3.83k
ITH
FB
330pF
1µF
33µF 10V
33µF 10V
+
3V8
DMAX
33µF 10V
VIN
220µF 15µF 25V
16V
4.7µF
INTVCC
18.7k
10Ω
PGND
SGND
165k
VOUT
15µF 25V
0.005Ω
1W
15µF 25V
Q3
HAT2165H
GATE2
15µF 25V
SENSE2–
CLKOUT
SYNC
PLLFLTR
VOUT
12V
15A
10nF
SENSE2+
L2
2.7µH
CDEP145-2R7
L1
2.7µH
CDEP145-2R7
D2
MBRB2515LT41
D1
MBRB2515LT41
1nF
GATE1
SENSE1+
SLOPE
BLANK
PHASEMODE
RUN
FREQ
1µF
SS
330pF
0.005Ω
220µF
1W
16V
10nF
SENSE1–
+
45.3k
Q1
HAT2165H
10Ω
LTC3862
ITH
FB
SGND
33µF 10V
33µF 10V
+
3V8
DMAX
33µF 10V
VIN
220µF 15µF 25V
16V
4.7µF
INTVCC
10Ω
PGND
0.005Ω
1W
Q3
HAT2165H
GATE2
10nF
10k
10nF
SENSE2+
15µF 25V
15µF 25V
SENSE2–
CLKOUT
SYNC
PLLFLTR
15µF 25V
L2
2.7µH
CDEP145-2R7
D2
MBRB2515LT41
Figure 10. A 4-phase, 12V/15A industrial power supply that operates from a 5V input
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
5
L DESIGN FEATURES
ILOAD
2.5A-5A
5A DIV
IL1 MASTER
5A/DIV
IL2 MASTER
5A/DIV
IL1 SLAVE
5A/DIV
IL2 SLAVE
5A/DIV
VIN
5V/DIV
IL1 MASTER
5A/DIV
IL2 MASTER
5A/DIV
IL1 SLAVE
5A/DIV
IL2 SLAVE
5A/DIV
VOUT
200mV/DIV
VOUT
10V/DIV
VIN = 5V
VOUT = 12V
RLOAD = 10Ω
1ms/DIV
VIN = 5V
VOUT = 12V
Figure 11. Power supply start-up waveforms for
4-phase, 12V/15A industrial power supply
This power supply operates at a
switching frequency of 300kHz in order
to reduce switching losses and uses a
57.8µH, 5A inductor (PA2050-583). An
80V Renesas HAT2267H MOSFET was
chosen for this application, in order
to provide suficient guardband above
the 72V output. The MOSFET has a
maximum RDS(ON) of 13mΩ at VGS =
10V. The Diodes Inc surface mount
diode (B3100) was chosen for the 3A
output current level. A combination
of a two 47µF, 100V electrolytic and
six 2.2µF, 100V low ESR ceramic capacitors are used to reduce the output
ripple to below 100mV peak-to-peak
and satisfy the RMS ripple current
requirement.
A 4-Phase, 5V Input,
12V/15A Output,
Industrial Power Supply
Figure 10 illustrates an industrial
power supply that converts a 5V input to a 12V output at up to 15A of
load current. The use of four phases
greatly eases the task of choosing
the power components, and reduces
output ripple signiicantly. Figure 11
250µs/DIV
Figure 12. Load step waveforms for 4-phase,
12V/15A industrial power supply
In high output voltage
systems, switching losses
in the power MOSFETs
can sometimes exceed the
conduction losses. In order
to reduce switching losses
as much as possible, the
LTC3862 incorporates
strong gate drivers. The
PMOS pull-up transistor has
a typical RDS(ON) of 2.1Ω,
and the NMOS pull-down
transistor has a typical
RDS(ON) of 0.7Ω. In addition to
reducing switching losses,
these strong gate drivers
allow two power MOSFETs to
be connected in parallel for
high current applications.
shows the start-up waveforms for this
converter. Figure 12 shows the load
step waveforms.
Multiphase operation is made possible using the PHASEMODE, SYNC
and CLKOUT pins. The PHASEMODE
pin controls the phase relationship
between GATE 1 and GATE 2, as
well as between GATE 1 and CLKOUT. The CLKOUT pin of a master
controller is connected to the SYNC
pin of a slave, where the phase lock
loop ensures proper synchronization.
The PHASEMODE pin can be used to
program 2-, 3-, 4-, 6- and 12-phase
operation.
48V/5A Demo Circuit
The DC1286A demonstration circuit
board is designed for high power applications, providing a 48V/5A output
using the GN24 package option of the
LTC3862 or LTC3862-1. The 6-layer
PCB design ensures proper routing of
the SENSE lines, and exhibits minimal
jitter even at 50% duty cycle. Jumpers are provided to easily change the
BLANK time, PHASE, maximum duty,
and SLOPE compensation. There is
an optional onboard 12V VIN supply
to power the IC, and the component
footprint provides lexibility to use
various inductors, MOSFET’s and
diodes.
Conclusion
The LTC3862 is a versatile control IC
optimized for a wide variety of stepup DC/DC converter applications. Its
lexible, high performance operation
and three convenient package options
make it possible to optimize eficiency,
size and weight of the power supply,
while keeping the total component and
manufacturing costs low. L
Figure 13. 48V/5A output, high power demonstration circuit
6
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN FEATURES L
Reliable Precision Voltage Reference
with 5ppm/°C Drift is Factory Trimmed
and Tested at –40°C, 25°C and 125°C
by Michael B. Anderson and Brendan Whelan
Introduction
The LTC6652 reference is a precision
low drift voltage reference that includes
advanced curvature compensation
circuitry and post-package trim. To
guarantee reliable performance, these
parts are tested at –40°C, 25°C and
125°C to verify they meet speciication
across the entire temperature range.
This comprehensive testing ensures
that the LTC6652 can be used with
conidence in demanding applications. One result of this testing is
demonstrated in Figure 1. The output
voltage versus temperature for several
randomly chosen parts shows a drift
characteristic that is consistent from
part to part. This is a result of a propriLinear Technology Magazine • January 2009
2.504
GUARANTEED
VOUT (V)
2.502
2.496
–50
Compare the Real Specs:
Is the Temperature Range
Operating or Functional?
When comparing voltage references for
use in demanding environments, it is
important to know, with conidence,
how the voltage reference performs at
the extremes. When it is important for
the reference to provide precision (not
just survive) in a harsh environment,
the LTC6655 leaves most competing
voltage references behind.
For example, many applications
requiring a precision reference are
designed to work over the industrial
temperature range (–40°C to 85°C).
If the ambient temperature reaches
85°C, the interior of the enclosure and
the temperature of the reference will
2.500
2.498
0
50
100
TEMPERATURE (°C)
150
Figure 1. Typical drift characteristics of
production trimmed and tested parts
likely exceed 85°C. It is not uncommon in this case for the interior of a
circuit enclosure to climb above 100°C
due to the thermal dissipation of its
components. In addition, any comparable voltage reference fully loaded at
5mA with a 13.2V input voltage would
self-heat an additional 18°C, raising its
own internal junction temperature to
118°C. This temperature is well outside the useful range of most voltage
references. The LTC6652, however,
maintains exceptional performance in
these conditions, despite the extreme
environment. By comparison, the drift
of a reference speciied only to 85°C will
180
30
1004 UNITS
160
25
LTC6652A LIMITS
140
NUMBER OF UNITS
Factory Calibration Means
Dependable Precision
etary curvature compensation circuit
that tracks the operating conditions
and the manufacturing process, yielding consistent results. Figure 2 shows
a typical temperature drift distribution of randomly selected production
tested LTC6652s, illustrating how well
the design and testing methodology
works. Finally, the initial accuracy
distribution is tightly controlled, as
shown in Figure 3.
NUMBER OF UNITS
High precision requirements are no
longer limited to the most exotic and
expensive measurement equipment.
Designers of industrial monitors
and automotive monitor and control
circuits are using precision circuits
to maximize the performance and
uninterrupted operating times of their
products. Improved precision allows
for more accurate assessment of sensor outputs that measure ambient
conditions, equipment position, battery condition, component wear and
many other system indicators. Precise
and consistent measurements are the
key to managing system elements that
change very little over their operating
lives. Recognizing these slight changes
can allow estimation of the remaining
lifetime of lamps, motors, and other
components, or allow control of battery charge and discharge to maximize
operating life. These applications not
only require high accuracy, low drift
and low noise, but also a wide operating temperature range and reasonable
cost.
20
15
10
120
80
60
40
5
0
20
0
0.5
1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
DRIFT (ppm/°C)
3.0
3.5
Figure 2. Drift distribution (–40°C to 125°C)
0
2.4985
2.4995
2.5005
OUTPUT VOLTAGE (V)
2.5015
Figure 3. Typical VOUT distribution
for LTC6652-2.5
7
L DESIGN FEATURES
After any precision reference is soldered onto a printed circuit board,
thermal hysteresis will likely shift the
output from its factory trimmed value.
Further temperature cycling will also
contribute to a shift in the output voltage. Over time, the output will tend to
drift slightly as well due to aging of the
circuit. The circuit design, fabrication
process and mechanical design of the
LTC6652 is optimized for low thermal
hysteresis and excellent long-term
stability, reducing the need for ield
calibration. Thermal hysteresis is
caused by differing rates of expansion
and contraction of materials within
a packaged semiconductor device as
the device experiences temperature
changes. As the package material and
the semiconductor die expand and
contract at different rates, mechani8
125°C TO 25°C
–40°C TO 25°C
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
–250
50
–150
–50
DISTRIBUTION (ppm)
150
Figure 4. Hysteresis plot (–40°C to 125°C)
cal force changes device parameters
(ever so slightly) and cause the output
voltage to change. This change is
measured in parts per million (ppm)
and is shown in Figure 4.
The LTC6652 boasts a typical
thermal hysteresis value of 105ppm
over its full temperature range. What
this means is that when a device goes
The LTC6652 reference
family is designed and
factory trimmed to yield
exceptional drift and
accuracy performance. The
entire family is guaranteed
and production tested at
–40°C, 25°C and 125°C
to ensure dependable
performance in demanding
applications. Low thermal
hysteresis and low long-term
drift reduce or eliminate the
need for field calibration.
160
from room temperature to 125° and
back again to room temperature, the
output will typically shift 105ppm.
For a 2.5V voltage option, the output
would shift –260µV. A cold excursion
would shift the most recent room temperature measurement +260µ. Typical
hysteresis of 105ppm is equivalent to
0.0105%; just a small fraction of the
initial accuracy.
It may be convenient to compare
typical values for thermal hysteresis
when choosing a voltage reference.
It is important to remember that
these numbers do not tell the whole
story. It is the distribution of expected
hysteresis that must be used to determine the expected error caused
by temperature cycling. Referring to
Figure 4, some parts will have better
or worse hysteresis. This chart helps
to estimate a realistic error budget.
This is something our competitors
don’t always include, yet is critically
important when specifying precision
systems.
Over time a reference is likely to
shift on its own even if it’s kept at a
constant temperature. This is known
as long-term drift. Long-term drift
is measured in ppm/√khr and has
a logarithmic characteristic where
the change in output voltage decays
as time passes. Figure 5 shows the
long-term drift of the LTC6652. Note
that most of the drift occurs within
the irst 1,000 or 2,000 hours as the
PCB and package settle. Afterward
the drift tends to settle, and the slope
is reduced over time as a function of
√khr. Direct measurement on soldered
down parts is the only way to determine
LTC6652-2.5
120
LONG TERM DRIFT (ppm)
Eliminate Field Calibration
35
NUMBER OF UNITS
likely exhibit substantial additional
error, or it may even fail to operate.
Other references that claim similar
performance to the LTC6652 often are
only “functional”, meaning they don’t
fail, but they don’t meet speciication
either at temperatures exceeding 85°C
or below 0°C. These competing parts
are rarely tested across their entire
speciied temperature range. The reality of industrial circuit design is that
in many cases, component speciications over “industrial” temperatures
are woefully inadequate.
In contrast, every LTC6652 is fully
tested at 25°C, –40°C and again at
125°C for every device, not just a
small sample. This extensive testing
proves the consistently high quality
of the LTC6652 over its entire wide
temperature range.
Further, the LTC6652 was designed
from the ground up to accommodate
a wide temperature range. Figure 1
clearly illustrates its consistent performance over the entire range. There
is no need to question or derate the
performance of a system that uses
the LTC6652 at its temperature extremes. The consistent, guaranteed
performance makes it easy to design,
specify and calibrate a high performance system. This is not the case
with some competing products.
80
40
0
–40
–80
–120
–160
0
1000
2000
3000
TIME (HOURS)
4000
5000
6000
Figure 5. Example of long-term drift
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN FEATURES L
Small Footprint and
Output Capacitor Optional
The performance of the LTC6652
is often only found in larger packages such as an SOIC. However,
the LTC6652 is packaged in a small
8-lead MSOP and does not require
an input or output capacitor. This
minimizes required board space, thus
simplifying the design of applications
with tight PCB constraints such as
small sensor enclosure applications.
Another advantage of not using capacitors is eliminating energy storage
devices tied to sensitive circuits. This
2.5005
2.5000
Output Can Source
and Sink Current
25°C
–40°C
2.4990
2.4985
2.4980
0
2
8
6
10
4
INPUT VOLTAGE (V)
12
14
Figure 6. Line regulation
The LTC6652 reference
family has seven output
voltage options, making
it suitable for a variety
of today’s demanding
applications. These options
are 1.25V, 2.048V, 2.5V, 3V,
3.3V, 4.096V, and 5V.
is a useful feature in safety critical
systems, where energy storage must
be minimized. If, however, low noise
is a priority, an input capacitor may
be added to suppress high frequency
transients on the supply line, while an
output capacitor will reduce wideband
noise and improve AC PSRR. Either
way, the LTC6652 offers stable operation. Small size and a range of useful
input and output capacitors allows
the LTC6652 to satisfy the requirements of many different applications.
This includes everything from small,
10
OUTPUT CURRENT (mA)
OUTPUT CURRENT (mA)
125°C
2.4995
10
1
0.1
tight-itting portable applications to
high precision, low noise measurement
applications.
2.5010
OUTPUT VOLTAGE (V)
long-term drift. Accelerated testing
does not work. Some users burn in
their boards, which helps eliminate
this initial slope, further reducing the
effect of long-term drift.
The three curves shown in Figure 5
give a general indication of how much
long-term drift to expect. The typical
speciication is 60ppm/√khr, which
translates into 150µV drift. Combining the typical thermal hysteresis
and long-term drift numbers yields
165ppm. To put this in perspective,
the LTC6652 temperature coeficient
is typically 2ppm/°C over 165°C temperature range, which yields 330ppm
due to drift alone. The combined thermal hysteresis and long-term drift is
half this number (or just 20% of the
maximum drift speciication). The
superior thermal hysteresis and longterm drift performance of the LTC6652
ensures accuracy and reliability over
the product lifetime, virtually eliminating the need for ield calibration.
25°C
Wide Input Range,
Low Dropout, and
Seven Voltage Options
1
25°C
125°C, –40°C
125°C
–40°C
0.01
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
0.1
0.001
INPUT-OUTPUT VOLTAGE (V)
0.01
0.1
OUTPUT-INPUT VOLTAGE (V)
a. Sourcing current
b. Sinking current
Figure 7. Dropout voltage sourcing and sinking current
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
The LTC6652 is a series voltage reference that can source current, but it can
also sink current like a shunt reference. Some series voltage references
can only source output current and
rely on a resistor divider for feedback
and to sink a small amount of current.
These types of devices can experience
long settling times, especially when
charge is kicked back from a switched
capacitor circuit causing the output
voltage to rise. The sink (overvoltage)
settling time on a source only reference is dominated by the RC time
constant of the output capacitor and
the resistive divider. For example, a
2.2µF output capacitor and a 125kΩ
resistive divider will have a 275ms
time constant. Depending on the size
of the perturbation and the system
precision, a source only reference
may not settle in a timely fashion.
The LTC6652 current sink capacity
is 5mA and will dynamically respond
for faster settling.
Shunt references are two terminal
devices that maintain the output voltage by sinking more or less current.
The sinking ability of the LTC6652
allows it to operate in a similar, but
more eficient manner. In fact, for
voltage options of 3V or higher, the
VIN pin can actually go below the VOUT
pin while sinking currents of 100µA
and higher and still maintain good
regulation.
1
The LTC6652 reference family has
seven output voltage options to choose
from, making it suitable for a variety
of today’s demanding applications.
These options are 1.25V, 2.048V, 2.5V,
3V, 3.3V, 4.096V, and 5V. For low
input voltage requirements, the 1.25V
and 2.048V options work with input
voltages down to 2.7V. The other ive
options require only 300mV input-tocontinued on page 4
9
L DESIGN FEATURES
Ultralow Noise 15mm ×15mm × 2.8mm
µModule Step-Down Regulators Meet
the Class B of CISPR 22 and Yield
High Efficiency at up to 36VIN
by Judy Sun, Jian Yin, Sam Young and Henry Zhang
Introduction
Power supply designers face many
tradeoffs. Need high eficiency, large
conversion ratios, high power and
good thermal performance? Choose a
switching regulator. Need low noise?
Choose a linear regulator. Need it
all? Compromise. One compromise
is to follow a switcher with a linear
regulator (or regulators). Although this
cleans up the output noise relative to
a switcher-only solution, a good portion of the conducted and radiated
EMI remains—even if ferrite beads,
π ilters, and LC ilters are used. The
problem can always be traced back to
the switcher, where fast dI/dt transitions and high switching frequencies
These µModule step-down
regulators are designed
to achieve both high
power density and meet
EMC (electromagnetic
compatibility) standards.
The integrated ultralow
noise feature allows both
devices to pass the Class
B of CISPR 22 radiated
emission limit, thus
eliminating expensive EMI
design and lab testing.
lead to high frequency EMI, but
some applications, especially those
with large conversion ratios, require
a switcher.
Fortunately, the LTM4606 and
LTM4612 µModule regulators offer the
advantages of a switching regulator
while maintaining ultralow conducted
and radiated noise. These µModule
step-down regulators are designed to
achieve both high power density and
meet EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) standards. The integrated
ultralow noise feature allows both
devices to pass the Class B of CISPR
22 radiated emission limit, thus
eliminating expensive EMI design and
Table 1. Feature comparison of ultralow noise µModule regulators
10
Feature
LTM4606
LTM4612
VIN
4.5V to 28V
5V to 36V
VOUT
0.6V to 5V
3.3V to 15V
IOUT
6A DC Typical, 8A Peak
5A DC Typical, 7A Peak
CISPR 22 Class B Compliant
L
L
Output Voltage Tracking and Margining
L
L
PLL Frequency Synchronization
L
L
±1.5% Total DC Error
L
L
Power Good Output
L
L
Current Foldback Protection
L
L
Parallel/Current Sharing
L
L
Low Input and Output Referred Noise
L
L
Ultrafast Transient Response
L
L
Current Mode Control
L
L
Programmable Soft-Start
L
L
Output Overvoltage Protection
L
L
Package
15mm × 15mm × 2.8mm
15mm × 15mm × 2.8mm
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN FEATURES L
>1.9V = ON
<1V = OFF
MAX = 5V
VOUT
RUN
PGOOD
5.1V
ZENER
COMP
1.5µF
INPUT
FILTER
VIN
4.5V TO 28V
+
CIN
60.4k
VD
INTERNAL
COMP
CD
POWER CONTROL
SGND
M1
VOUT
2.5V
AT 6A
MARG1
MARG0
VFB
50k
RFB
19.1k
NOISE
CANCELLATION
50k
fSET
M2
22µF
+
COUT
41.2k
PGND
FCB
10k
MPGM
TRACK/SS
CSS
PLLIN
50k
4.7µF
INTVCC
DRVCC
Figure 1. Simplified block diagram of the LTM4606 (LTM4612 is similar). Only a few
capacitors and resistors are required to build a complete wide-input-range regulator.
requiring only a few input and output
capacitors.
For more output power, both parts
can be easily paralleled, where output
currents are automatically shared
due to the current mode control
structure.
100
90
EFFICIENCY (%)
lab testing. See Table 1 for a feature
comparison of these two parts.
Both µModule regulators are offered in space saving, low proile and
thermally enhanced 15mm × 15mm ×
2.8mm LGA packages, so they can be
placed on the otherwise unused space
at the bottom of PC boards for highaccuracy point-of-load regulation. This
is not possible with linear regulators
that require a bulky cooling system.
Almost all support components are
integrated into the µModule package,
so layout design is relatively simple,
80
70
1.2VOUT
1.5VOUT
2.5VOUT
3.3VOUT
5VOUT
60
50
0
1
2
3
4
LOAD CURRENT (A)
5
6
Figure 2. Efficiency of the
LTM4606 with a 12V input.
Easy Power Supply Design
with Ultralow Noise
µModule Regulators
With a few external input and output capacitors, the LTM4612 can
deliver 4.5A of DC output current
95
CLOCK SYNC
R4
100k
CIN
10µF x 2
50V
ON/OFF
C1
10µF
50V
C4
0.01µF
VIN
PLLIN
PGOOD
VOUT
RUN LTM4612
VD
VFB
INTVCC
DRVCC
FCB
fSET
MARG0
MARG1
TRACK/SS
MPGM
COMP
SGND PGND
90
C3
100pF
RSET
5.23k
COUT1
22µF
25V
VOUT
12V
4.5A
COUT2
180µF
16V
DCM
CCM
80
75
70
MARGIN
CONTROL
65
R1
392k
5% MARGIN
60
Figure 3. A few capacitors and resistors complete an 18V–36V input, 12V/4.5A output design.
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
85
EFFICIENCY (%)
VIN
18V
TO 36V
55
24VIN, 12VOUT
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
LOAD CURRENT (A)
Figure 4. Efficiency for the circuit in Figure 3.
11
L DESIGN FEATURES
LT4606 OR LTC4612
L1
VIN
VIN
+
VD
C2
10µF
×3
C1
150µF
C3
10µF
Figure 6. Input π filter reduces
high frequency input noise.
Figure 5. Thermal image of an LTM4606
with 24V input and 3.3V output at 6A
97mVP–P
10.6mVP–P
VIN
50mV/DIV
VIN
5mV/DIV
VOUT
5mV/DIV
VOUT
2mV/DIV
13.8mVP–P
4.4mVP–P
VIN = 5V
2µs/DIV
VOUT = 1.2V
ILOAD = 5A
CIN = 3×10µF/25V CERAMIC AND 1×150µF/25V ELECTROLITIC
COUT = 1×100µF/25V AND 3×22µF/25V CERAMIC
SCOPE BW = 300MHz
VIN = 5V
2µs/DIV
VOUT = 1.2V
ILOAD = 5A
CIN = 3×10µF/25V CERAMIC AND 1×150µF/25V ELECTROLITIC
COUT = 1×100µF/25V AND 3×22µF/25V CERAMIC
SCOPE BW = 300MHz
Figure 7. Input and output noise of comparable
µModule regulator without low noise feature
Figure 8. Input and output noise of LTM4606
µModule regulator is significantly lower than
the regulator in Figure 7.
80
VIN = 24V
VOUT = 12V
SIGNAL AMPLITUDE (dBµV)
70
60
CIS25QP
50
40
30
20
10
0
0.15
1
FREQUENCY (MHz)
10
30
Figure 9. The conducted EMI test of the LTM4612 passes EMI standard CISPR 25 level 5.
and the LTM4606 can deliver 6A. The
LTM4612’s programmable output can
be precisely regulated in a 3.3V-to-15V
range from a 4.5V-to-36V input; the
LTM4606 can produce 0.6V to 5V from
a 4.5V-to-28V range. With current
mode control and optimized internal
compensations, both offer stable
output even in the face of signiicant
load transients.
12
Figure 1 shows the simpliied block
diagram of the LTM4606 with an input
from 4.5V to 28V and 2.5V/6A output.
Figure 2 shows the eficiency test
curves with 12V input voltage under
CCM mode. About 92% eficiency is
achieved at full load with LTM4606,
running at 900kHz switching frequency.
Figure 3 shows a complete 18V–36V
VIN, 12V/4.5A VOUT design with the
LTM4612. Figure 4 shows the eficiency.
Both parts offer good thermal performance with a large output load
current. Figure 5 shows the LTM4606
thermal image with 24V input and
3.3V output at 6A load current. The
maximum case temperature is only
73.5oC with the 20W output power.
Both include a number of built-in
features, such as controllable softstart, RUN pin control, output voltage
tracking and margining, PGOOD
indicator, frequency adjustment and
external clock synchronization. Eficiency can be further improved by
applying an external gate driver voltage
to the DRVCC pin, especially in high
VIN applications. Discontinuous mode
operation can be enabled to increase
the light load eficiency.
Reduce Conducted EMI
Conducted input and output noise of
switching regulators (aka ripple) is
usually a problem when the regulator
operates at high frequency, which is
common in space-constrained applications. The LTM4606 and LTM4612
reduce peak-to-peak ripple at the
input by integrating a high frequency
inductor as shown in Figure 6. The
external input capacitors at the VD
and VIN pins form a high frequency
input π ilter. This effectively reduces
conductive EMI coupling between the
module and the main input bus.
Since most input RMS current lows
into capacitor C3 at the VD pin, C3
should have enough capacity to handle
the RMS current. A 10µF ceramic capacitor is recommended. To effectively
attenuate EMI, place C3 as close as
possible to the VD pin. The ceramic
capacitors C2 mainly determine the
ripple noise attenuation, so the capacitor value can be varied to meet the
different input ripple requirements.
C1 is only needed if the input source
impedance is compromised by long
inductive leads or traces.
Since these µModule regulators
are used in a buck circuit topology,
the lowpass ilter formed by the output inductor L and capacitor COUT
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN FEATURES L
LTM4606 µMODULE
REGULATOR
RESISTIVE LOAD
EMISSIONS LEVEL (dBµV/m)
90
DC POWER SUPPLY
Reduce Radiated EMI
Switching regulators also produce
radiated EMI, caused by the high dI/
dt signals inherent in high eficiency
regulators. The input π ilter helps to
limit radiated EMI caused by high dI/dt
loops in the immediate module area,
but to further attenuate radiated EMI,
the LTM4606 and LTM4612 include an
optimized gate driver for the MOSFET
and a noise cancellation network.
To test radiated EMI, several setups are tested in a 10-meter shielded
chamber as shown in Figure 10. To
ensure a low baseline radiated noise,
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
CISPR22, CLASS B
30
10
0
100
200
300
400 500 600 700
FREQUENCY (MHz)
800
900 1000
Figure 11. Radiated emission scan of baseline noise (no switching regulator module)
EMISSIONS LEVEL (dBµV/m)
90
70
50
CISPR22, CLASS B
30
VIN = 12V
VOUT = 2.5V
ILOAD = 6A
10
0
0
100
200
300
400 500 600 700
FREQUENCY (MHz)
800
900 1000
Figure 12. Radiated emission peak scan of a typical module without the low noise features.
90
EMISSIONS LEVEL (dBµV/m)
can similarly reduce the conducted
output EMI.
To show the relative noise attenuation of these µModule regulators, a
similar module without the low noise
feature is compared to the LTM4606
for input and output noise, as shown in
Figure 7 and Figure 8. Both modules
are tested from 5V input to 1.2V output
at 5A with resistive loads. The same
board layout and I/O capacitors are
used in the comparison. The results
show that the LTM4606 produces
much lower input and output noise,
with a nearly 10× reduction of the
peak-to-peak input noise and better
than 3× reduction of the output noise
compared to the similar module in
Figure 7.
Figure 9 shows the conducted EMI
testing results for the LTM4612 with
a 24V VIN, 12V/5A VOUT, which accommodates the EMI standard CISPR
25 level 5. The input capacitance for
this test comes from 4 × 10µF/50V
ceramics plus a single 150µF/50V
electrolytic.
50
0
70
50
CISPR22, CLASS B
30
VIN = 12V
VOUT = 2.5V
ILOAD = 6A
10
0
0
100
200
300
400 500 600 700
FREQUENCY (MHz)
800
900 1000
Figure 13. The radiated EMI test of the LTM4606 passes EMI standard CISPR 22 Class B.
90
EMISSIONS LEVEL (dBµV/m)
Figure 10. Setup of the radiated emission scan
70
70
50
CISPR22, CLASS B
30
VIN = 24V
VOUT = 12V
ILOAD = ??A
10
0
0
100
200
300
400 500 600 700
FREQUENCY (MHz)
800
900 1000
Figure 14. The radiated EMI test of the LTM4612 passes EMI standard CISPR 22 Class B.
13
L DESIGN FEATURES
Table 2. Noise margins are good for radiated emission results shown in Figure 13
EUT
Antenna Uncorrected
Frequency Antenna
Azimuth
Height
Amplitude
ACF
(MHz) Polarization (Degrees)
(cm)
(dBµV)
(dB/m)
Pre-Amp
Gain
(dB)
CBL
(dB)
Corrected
DCF Amplitude
(dB)
(dBµV)
Limit
(dBµV)
Margin
(dB)
134.31
H
354
364
1.3
11.428
0
1.532
0
14.26
30
15.74
119.96
V
184
110
3.5
12.694
0
1.456
0
17.65
30
12.35
160.02
H
0
354
0.5
10.499
0
1.793
0
12.792
30
17.208
174.37
H
0
100
1.2
9.638
0
1.944
0
12.782
30
17.218
224.28
V
0
100
–1.87
10.586
0
2.044
0
10.76
30
19.24
263.63
H
0
371
–4.72
12.6
0
2.385
0
10.265
37
26.735
a linear DC power supply is used
for the input, and a resistive load is
employed on the output. The baseline
noise is checked with the power supply
providing a DC current directly to the
resistive load. The baseline emission
scan results are shown in Figure 11.
There are two traces in the plot, one
for the vertical and horizontal orientations of the receiver antenna.
Figure 12 shows the peak scan results of a µModule buck regulator—not
the LTM4606 or LTM4612—without
the integrated low noise feature. The
scan results show that the noise below
350MHz is produced by the µModule
switching regulator, when compared
to the baseline noise level. Radiated
EMI here does not meet the Class B
of CISPR 22 (quasi-peak) radiated
emission limit.
LTC6652, continued from page 9
output headroom while fully loaded,
and they require less headroom with a
reduced load or while sinking current.
Popular application requirements,
such as a 2.5V reference operating
on a 3V supply, or a 4.096V reference
operating on a 5V supply, are easily
accommodated. For high input voltage requirements, all voltage options
work up to 13.2V. Regardless of input
voltage the LTC6652 maintains its
excellent accuracy as shown in the
line regulation plot in Figure 6. A plot
of the dropout voltage for both sourcing and sinking current is shown in
Figures 7a and 7b, respectively.
14
In contrast, Figure 13 shows the
peak scan results of the low noise
LTM4606 module. To ensure enough
margin to the quasi-peak limit for
different operation conditions, the
six highest noise points are checked
as shown in the table of Figure 13
using the quasi-peak measurement.
The results show that it has more
than 12dBµV margin below the Class
B of CISPR 22(quasi-peak) radiated
emission limit.
Figure 14 shows the results for the
LTM4612 meeting the Class B of CISPR
22 radiated emission limit at 24V VIN,
12V/5A VOUT.
Conclusion
The LTM4606 and LTM4612 µModule
regulators offer all of the high performance beneits of switching regulators
minus the noise issues. The ultralow
Superior Performance
While many references share some
features of the LTC6652, it’s dificult
to ind any that include all the features
at the same level of performance and
reliability. Additional features include
low noise, good AC PSRR, and excellent load regulation (both sourcing and
sinking current). Low power consumption and a shutdown mode round out
the feature list.
Conclusion
The LTC6652 reference family is
designed and factory trimmed to
noise optimized design produces radiated EMI performance with enough
margin below the Class B of CISPR 22
limit to simplify application in noisesensitive environments.
Design is further simpliied by
exceptional thermal performance,
which allows them to achieve high
eficiency and a compact form factor. A low proile 15mm × 15mm ×
2.8mm package contains almost all
of the support components—only a
few input and output capacitors are
required to complete a design. Several
µModule regulators can be easily run
in parallel for more output power. The
versatility of these parts is rounded out
by optional features such as soft-start,
RUN pin control, output voltage tracking and margining, PGOOD indicator,
frequency adjustment and external
clock synchronization. L
yield exceptional drift and accuracy
performance. The entire family is
guaranteed and production tested at
–40°C, 25°C and 125°C to ensure dependable performance in demanding
applications. Low thermal hysteresis
and low long-term drift reduce or
eliminate the need for ield calibration. The small 8-lead MSOP package
and sparse capacitor requirements
minimize required board space. The
wide input range from 2.7V to 13.2V
and seven output voltage options will
tackle the needs of most precision
reference users. L
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN FEATURES L
Dual Hot Swap Controller Brings
Digital Monitoring to AdvancedTCA,
µTCA and AMC Applications
by Josh Simonson
Introduction
Recently ratiied plug-in card bus
standards, such as AdvancedTCA,
µTCA and AMC, reduce the number of
power supplies that are routed across
the connector when compared to earlier standards, such as CompactPCI.
Bulk power is limited to one fairly high
voltage supply, making for an eficient
distribution channel. For instance,
distributed 12V power is locally converted to lower voltages to minimize
distribution currents and related
losses in connectors and power handling circuitry. Some cards also have
a lower voltage (3.3V) maintenance
power supply that provides low current
Even with the simplification
that new plug-in standards
bring, there remain rigorous
power, heat dissipation and
reliability requirements
for Hot Swap, monitoring
and control. The LTC4222
satisfies these requirements
with integrated dual Hot
Swap controllers and voltage
and current monitoring via
an onboard ADC.
housekeeping functionality to a card
even when the bulk supply is off.
Even with the obvious simpliication
that these standards bring, there remain rigorous power, heat dissipation
and reliability requirements, which demand advanced Hot Swap, monitoring
and control capability. The LTC4222
satisies these requirements with dual
Hot Swap controllers and integrated
voltage and current monitoring via an
onboard ADC.
Hot swapping requires a power
switch to initially isolate the board,
and a controller to slowly turn on the
switch to minimize backplane distur-
Table 1. A few of the LTC4222’s many features
Feature
Benefits
Wide Input Voltage Range:
Operates from inputs of 2.9V to 29V,
with 35V absolute maximum
❏ Suitable for 3.3V, 5V, 12V and 24V systems
❏ Simpliies design because part functions on a semi-regulated supply
❏ Large overvoltage transient range eases design tolerances for transient protection
❏ Increases reliability
10-Bit ADC:
Monitors current, output voltage and
external pin voltage
❏ Board power information provides an early warning of board failure
❏ Verify board is staying within its allotted power
❏ Allows integrity check of redundant supply paths
❏ Allows active power management to safely maximize
power utilization within the chassis cooling constraints
I2C/SMBus:
Communicates as a read-write slave device
using a 2-wire serial interface
❏ Improves integration with the host system. Interface allows the host to conigure
the part, determine which faults are present or have occurred, and read back ADC
measurements
❏ Provides lexibility for different architectures
Optionally Coupled Faults:
The conig pin allows channels to function
❏ Allows the part to power two independent
independently or couples faults to shut down
sockets or sequence the application of power
both channel if either generates a fault
❏ Enables both channels to shut down on a fault, isolating a faulty board
Fast short Circuit Response:
Fast (<1µs) current limit response to shorts
❏ Protects connector from overcurrent
Alert Host After Faults:
When conigured (using I2C), faults activate
an active pull-down on the ALERT pin
❏ Interrupting the host for immediate fault servicing limits system damage
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
❏ Limits the disturbance to the input supply from a short circuit
❏ Reduces the bus trafic for polling
15
L DESIGN FEATURES
bances. Since the Hot Swap controller
monitors card voltage and current, it is
a natural place to integrate higher level
monitoring with a data converter. This
provides detailed information about
the health of the power path and the
power consumption of down-stream
circuits. Such information can be
used to monitor performance over time
and identify boards that are drifting
towards failure or out of spec.
The LTC4222 works in applications
from 24V (with transients to 35V) down
to 3.3V where the operating input voltage could drop to 2.9V. Functionally,
the LTC4222 is very similar to a pair
of LTC4215s or LTC4260s. Table 2
compares features of the LTC4222,
LTC4215 and LTC4260. Since all three
parts may be used for 12V systems,
Table 2 may be used to select the part(s)
with the optimal set of features for a
speciic 12V application.
Table 2. Feature comparison of the LTC4222, LTC4215 and LTC4260
Feature
LTC4222
LTC4215
LTC4260
Channels
2
1
1
VDD Abs Max
35V
24V
100V
VDD Min
2.9V
2.9V
8.5V
Current Limit/Circuit Breaker
50mV
25mV
50mV
Circuit Breaker Precision
5%
10%
10%
Built in Overvoltage Threshold
Optional Coupled Faults
L
ADC Direct Address/Alert
L
ADC Resolution
10-bit
8-bit
8-bit
ADC SOURCE LSB
31.25mV
60mV
400mV
ADC VSENSE LSB
62.5µV
151µV
300µV
ADC ADIN LSB
1.25mV
4.85mV
10mV
Internally Generated VCC
3.3V
3.1V
5.5V
Package
5mm x 5mm
QFN
4mm x 5mm
QFN
5mm x 5mm
QFN
AMC Application
The LTC4222 combines a robust Hot
Swap circuit with a data converter and
I2C interface to allow power monitoring
in addition to hot plug functionality
and fault isolation. In a typical application, see Figure 1, the LTC4222
uses external N-channel pass transistors to isolate the hot swapped board
from the backplane when it is irst
inserted. After a debounce time the
controller can begin to apply power to
the board or wait for a turn-on command from a host processor. Power
is gradually ramped up to minimize
any backplane disturbance. After the
power-up process is complete, the
LTC4222 continues to monitor for
faults in the power path. The CONFIG
pin controls whether the two channels
start-up and turn-off at the same time
or independently. Some of the major
features of the LTC4222 are listed in
Table 1.
An N-channel pass transistor, Q1,
controls the application of power to
VOUT1 on the board as in Figure 1. A
series sense resistor, RSENSE, allows
the LTC4222 to measure the current
in the power-path with the ADC and
provides the current sense input to
the current limit and circuit breaker.
Resistor R5 suppresses self-oscilla16
15.6V
tions in Q1. Resistors R1–R3 set the
undervoltage (UV) and overvoltage (OV)
fault thresholds. Capacitor CF ilters
the power signal to prevent faults from
noise or transient events. R7 and R8
select the power good threshold and set
the foldback current limit level, which
dramatically improves safe operating
RSENSE1
6mΩ
VIN1
12V
Q1
Si7336ADP
R51
10Ω
R21
1.02k
R31
3.4k
ON
SDA
SCL
ALERT
NC
C3
0.1µF
UV1 VDD1
OV1
ON
SDA
SCL
ALERT
CONFIG
ADR0
ADR1
ADR2
INTVCC
GND
R32
3.4k
VOUT1
12V
7.4A
R71
10.2k
R11
34k
CF1
0.1µF
OV2
UV2 VDD2
R81
3.57k
SENSE1– GATE1 SOURCE1
FB1
GPIO1
EN1
ADIN1
TIMER
R41
10k
12PGOOD
CTIMER
1µF
LTC4222
SS
ADIN2
EN2
CSS
68nF
AUXPGOOD
GPIO2
FB2
SENSE2 GATE2 SOURCE2
–
R22
1.02k
CF2
0.1µF
VIN2
3.3V
area (SOA) requirements for Q1. Capacitor CSS sets a maximum inrush
current slew rate to avoid transient
glitches on the backplane and CTIMER
is used to set the start-up time limit,
which protects Q1 by turning it off if
the system attempts to start-up into
an excessive load. C3 is used to bypass
R52
10Ω
CG2
10nF
R12
6.65k
R82
3.57k
R42
10k
R72
4.99k
RSENSE2
300mΩ
Q2
Si1046R
BACKPLANE PLUG-IN
CARD
VOUT2
3.3V
150mA
Figure 1. Typical AMC application
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN FEATURES L
the internal 3.3V core voltage on the
INTVCC pin and prevent the LTC4222
from resetting on input supply glitches.
The INTVCC pin may also be used to
power external loads, such as an I2C
bus buffer, up to 10mA. The behavior of
channel 2 is identical to channel 1.
Typically, the pins on the connector are staggered so that bulk power
is applied irst with the longest pins,
followed by communication lines on
medium length pins, and inally, Hot
Swap control lines such as the supply
for the UV, OV, or EN pins. The UV,
OV, and EN pins must be in the correct state for a period of 100ms before
Q1 is allowed to turn on to allow any
connector signal bouncing to subside
before starting up. At this point the
ON pin turns the part on immediately
if it is high, or holds the part off if it
is low. The ON pin can be overridden
and Q1 turned on or off through the
I2C bus by writing to the ON bit in the
control register.
If the CONFIG pin is low, these conditions must be met for both channels
to initiate start-up, and both channels
will start up at the same time, as
shown in Figure 2. A fault on either
channel when the CONFIG pin is low
results in both channels turning off,
as shown in Figure 3, at which point
they latch off or auto-retry together as
conigured in the control registers. This
allows a faulting board to be entirely
disconnected.
When the CONFIG pin is tied high,
the two channels can start-up independently as long as both VDD voltages
are above their UVLO levels. If one
channel is enabled during the 100ms
debounce time of the other channel,
the 100ms debounce is restarted and
both channels will start together, however if one channel is enabled while the
other channel is starting up or going
through an overcurrent cool-down
cycle, the channel attempting to start
must wait for the other channel to inish before it is allowed to start.
With CONFIG tied high, the two
channels can easily be sequenced by
tying the power good output on the
GPIO pin of one channel to the UV pin
of the other channel. The GPIO pin
pulls down the UV pin and holds the
other channel off until the irst channel starts up and the FB pin detects
that power is good, at which point the
GPIO pin releases the UV pin and the
second channel starts up, as shown
in Figure 4.
VDD1/2
10V/DIV
VDD1/2
10V/DIV
VOUT1
10V/DIV
VOUT1
10V/DIV
VOUT2
10V/DIV
VOUT2
10V/DIV
GPIO2
PGOOD
10V/DIV
GPIO2
PGOOD
10V/DIV
50ms/DIV
50ms/DIV
Figure 2. Start-up waveform
with coupled turn-on
Figure 4. Start-up waveform
with sequencing
VSENSE1
150mV/DIV
VSENSE1
150mV/DIV
VOUT1
10V/DIV
VOUT1
10V/DIV
VOUT2
10V/DIV
VOUT2
10V/DIV
ALERT
5V/DIV
ALERT
5V/DIV
10µs/DIV
Figure 3. Fault-off waveform
with coupled faults
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
10µs/DIV
Figure 5. Fault-off waveform
with independent faults
If one channel experiences a fault
when the CONFIG pin is tied high, the
other channel remains on, as shown
in Figure 5. This allows the LTC4222
to supply two slots on a backplanebased application where non-failing
slots are supposed to remain on when
adjacent slots fail, such as providing
12V payload power switching for two
µTCA slots as shown in Figure 6.
Measure Board Power
with Integrated ADC
Monitoring the supply voltage and
current is a useful way of tracking the
health of the power path. New data
can be compared with historical data
for the same card to detect changes in
power consumption that could indicate
that the card is behaving abnormally.
An abnormal card can be shut down
and lagged for service, perhaps before a more severe fault or system
malfunction occurs. The LTC4222
includes a 10-bit data converter that
continuously monitors six voltages:
two ADIN pins, two SOURCE pins and
two current sense voltages between the
SENSE+ and SENSE– pins. The ADIN
pins are uncommitted ADC inputs that
allow the user to monitor any available
voltage. The ADIN pins are monitored
with a 1.28V full scale and are connected directly to the data converter
input without any signal scaling. The
SOURCE pins use a 1:24 divider at
the input, which gives a 32V full scale.
The SENSE voltage ampliiers have a
voltage gain of 20, which results in a
64mV full scale. The converter uses
an over-sampling and offset cancellation method that preserves the full
10-bit dynamic range on the SENSE
channels.
If the data converter reads more
than 2mV on a VDD–SENSE channel
while the external switch is turned off,
the LTC4222 generates a FET-SHORT
fault to indicate that the switch may
be damaged. The presence of this
condition is indicated in the STATUS
register bit C5 for the originating
channel and logged to FAULT register
bit D5. The LTC4222 takes no action
in this condition other than logging
the fault and generating an alert if
conigured to do so.
17
L DESIGN FEATURES
The results from each conversion
are stored in 12 ADC registers. The
default behavior of the data converter
is a free-running mode in which it
sequentially measures all six channels continuously and updates the
output registers 15 times per second.
The data converter can be stopped
by setting ADC_CONTROL register
bit 0 (HALT)—subsequent writes to
the ADC_CONTROL register with the
HALT bit set initiate a single conversion on the data converter channel
selected by ADC_CONTROL register
bits 1–3. An optional alert can be
generated on the ALERT pin to indicate a conversion has inished by
setting ADC_CONTROL register bit
4, or alternately the ADC_BUSY bit
(ADC_CONTROL bit 5) can be polled
until it indicates that the data converter has completed the conversion.
Note that the ADC_BUSY bit is always
set when the data converter is in its
free-running mode. When the data
converter is halted, the data converter
registers may be written to and read
from for software testing.
Versatile Inrush
Current Control
As described above, the LTC4222
waits to turn on each channel’s external switch until the channel’s input
has met the UV and OV thresholds
and an internal 100ms debounce
timer has expired. The start-up time
is determined by the capacitor on the
TIMER pin, or 100ms if the TIMER pin
is tied to INTVCC. During this time the
circuit breaker is disabled to prevent
an overcurrent fault from occurring,
the power good signal from the corresponding GPIO pin is also disabled
to prevent turning on a load before
the current limit has reached the full
value via the SS (soft-start) and FB
(foldback) pins. The inrush current
slew rate (dI/dt) is limited via the SS
pin. The inrush current is also folded
back from 50mV to 17mV via the FB
pin. An optional RC network on the
external MOSFET gate can be used
to set the inrush current below the
foldback level by setting the maximum
slope of the output voltage. When both
channels are starting up at the same
18
time, the current sense voltages are
both regulated to the lowest value
commanded by the two FB pins and
the SS pin.
At the end of the start-up period
the current limit circuit is checked.
If the current limit is still regulating
the current, the LTC4222 determines
that the output failed to come up and
generates an overcurrent fault. If the
current limit circuit is not active then
the current limit threshold is moved to
150mV, the power good signal to the
GPIO pin is enabled and the 50mV
circuit breaker is armed.
The SS pin sets the current slew rate
limit at start-up. It starts at ground,
which corresponds to a negative voltage on the sense resistor and results
in the MOSFET being turned off. A
current into the soft-start capacitor
produces a ramp that corresponds
to increasing VDD–SENSE voltage.
When either channel’s current limit
circuit releases the gate (when the
commanding V DD –SENSE voltage
becomes positive) the current from
the SS pin is stopped to wait for that
GATE pin to rise and start to turn on
the MOSFET.
Once the current limit circuit begins
to regulate the VDD–SENSE voltage, the
current from the SS pin is resumed
and the ramp continues until it reaches
the foldback level. It is important
that the SS pin stop the ramp while
the GATE pins are slewing because
the ramp would otherwise continue
and result in an uncontrolled step in
current once the MOSFET threshold
is reached. An uncontrolled step may
violate inrush speciications and cause
supply glitches on the backplane. Due
to offset differences between the current limit circuits, the soft-start ramp
may pause twice as each gate slews at
a different time when both channels
turn on in the same start-up cycle.
If the soft-start ramp reaches one of
the the foldback current limit levels,
the soft-start circuit stops the ramp.
The ramp is allowed to continue as
the voltage at the lowest FB pin rises
and increases the foldback current
limit, still limited in slope and limited
in magnitude by foldback as well. The
FB pin for a channel that is either on
or off while the other is starting up is
ignored and does not affect the startup current limit.
If an RC network is placed on a
GATE pin to manually set the inrush
current to a value below the foldback
level, the current limit circuit leaves
regulation and begins slewing when it
is unable to achieve the VDD–SENSE
voltage commanded by the SS and FB
pins. If the start-up timer expires in the
meantime, an overcurrent fault is not
generated because the current limit is
not active. The power good output for
the GPIO pin relays the state of the FB
pin, and the circuit breaker is armed.
Either the output voltage inishes
rising and a power good is asserted
when the FB pin crosses it’s 1.235V
threshold, or the current rises to the
circuit breaker threshold and the part
generates an overcurrent fault.
In the event there is an overcurrent
condition after start-up, the current
limit circuit limits the VDD–SENSE
voltage to 150mV while the circuit
breaker waits for a 20µs timeout before producing an overcurrent fault.
After any overcurrent fault, the part
waits for a cool-down period of 50
times the start-up time before allowing
either channel to start or restart via
auto-retry, or cycling the EN, UV or
OV pins. The ON pins or the ON bits
in the control registers can be cycled
to bypass the cool-down time.
Controlled Turn-Off
When the LTC4215 is turned off by
a fault or I2C transaction, the GATE
pin is pulled down with a 1mA current
source. Once the GATE pin is below the
SOURCE pin, a diode from SOURCE
to GATE turns on and the voltage at
the SOURCE pin is discharged by the
same 1mA current.
If there is a short that causes the
sense voltage to exceed 150mV, a
450mA pull-down current from GATE
to SOURCE removes the gate charge of
the switch. Once the sense voltage falls
to 150mV, the current limit regulates
there for 20µs before turning the gate
off with the 1mA current source.
If there is a signiicant inductance
between VDD (SENSE+) and upstream
bulk capacitance, across a connecLinear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN FEATURES L
tor for instance, it is possible that a
short circuit at the output with a very
fast discharge time could cause the
VDD input voltage to collapse while
the current through this inductance
slews. In this case, after 2µs, the VDD
undervoltage lockout circuit turns on
and discharges the GATE pin with the
450mA pull-down to the SOURCE pin
to quickly turn the switch off.
the 20% circuit breaker frees 4A for
use elsewhere, or allows the use of
a 30% smaller, and less expensive,
power supply.
High Voltage Rating
for 12V Applications
The LTC4222 has a maximum input
voltage rating of 35V, which is higher
Save Power with Precise
50mV Circuit Breaker
In systems where a circuit breaker
has only 20% accuracy, the designer
must be able to safely provide 50%
more power than the card actually
consumes to ensure that the application doesn’t suffer from heat and
supply limitations on the high side or
produce a fault in normal operation
on the low side. For instance, in a
system that requires 10A, a 20% accurate hot swap must have a nominal
circuit breaker threshold of 12.5A.
Since the threshold could be as high
as 15A, the power supply needs to be
able to supply 15A. In the case of a
5% threshold, the nominal threshold
is 10.5A and the maximum possible
current is 11A. Using the part with a
5% circuit breaker over the part with
The LTC4222 is a smart
power gateway for boards
with two or more hotswappable supplies. It
provides fault isolation,
closely monitors the health
of the power paths and
provides a versatile means
of controlling the inrush
current profile. It logs
faults, provides real-time
status information, and
can interrupt the host if
necessary. Meanwhile,
an internal 10-bit ADC
continuously monitors board
current and voltages.
6mΩ
12V
12V
10Ω
12.1k
2k
UV1 VDD1
OV1
ON
SDA
SCL
ALERT
CONFIG
ADR0
ADR1
ADR2
INTVCC
GPIO1
EN1
ADIN1
UV2 VDD2
TIMER
SS
LOAD
1
PWR GOOD 1
1µF
68nF
ADIN2
EN2
GPIO2
PWR GOOD 2
FB2
SENSE2– GATE2 SOURCE2
2k
µTCA
PLUG-IN
CARD 2
12.1k
10Ω
0.1µF
µTCA
PLUG-IN
CARD 1
LTC4222
GND
OV2
100k
SENSE1– GATE1 SOURCE1
FB1
0.1µF
10.2k
The LTC4222 is a smart power gateway
for boards with two or more hotswappable supplies. It provides fault
isolation, closely monitors the health
of the power paths and provides versatile means of controlling the inrush
current proile. It logs faults, provides
real-time status information, and
can interrupt the host if necessary.
Meanwhile, an internal 10-bit ADC
continuously monitors board current
and voltages. These features make the
LTC4222 an ideal power gateway for
high availability systems. L
93.1k
0.1µF
NC
Conclusion
Si7336ADP
93.1k
10.2k
than the breakdown voltage of the
external MOSFET for most 12V applications, and also allows the LTC4222
to be used in 24V applications. If the
breakdown voltage of the external
MOSFET is less than the 35V abs-max
of the LTC4222, there is no need for a
transorb at the input in a card-resident
application because voltage surges
are safely absorbed by the MOSFET.
If a transorb is still required, the high
voltage rating of the LTC4222 makes
it easy to select a transorb above the
maximum operating range of the application, and below the 35V maximum
for the part.
93.1k
100k
LOAD
2
93.1k
12V
12V
6mΩ
Si7336ADP
BACKPLANE
Figure 6. µTCA application supplying 12V payload power to two µTCA slots
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
19
L DESIGN FEATURES
±32V Triple-Output Supply for LCDs,
CCDs and LEDs Includes Fault
Protection in a 3mm × 3mm QFN
by Eko T. Lisuwandi
Introduction
The task of designing a battery powered system with multiple high voltage
supplies is a daunting one. In such
systems board space is at a premium
and high eficiency is required to
extend battery life. Supplies must be
sequenced in start-up and shut-down,
and multiple supplies must be able to
maintain regulation without interaction across supplies.
The LT3587 is a 1-chip solution
that combines three switching regulators and three internal high voltage
switches to produce two high voltage
boost converters and a single high voltage inverter. The LT3587 is designed to
run from inputs ranging from 2.5V to
6V, making it ideal for battery powered
systems. Small package size and low
component count produces a small,
eficient solution. Typical applications
include digital still and video cameras,
high performance portable scanners
and display systems, PDAs, cellular
phones and handheld computers that
have high voltage peripherals such as
CCD sensors, LED backlights, LCD
displays or OLED displays.
Features
To keep the component count low, the
LT3587 integrates three high voltage
power switches capable of switching
0.5A, 1A and 1.1A at up to 32V in
a 3mm × 3mm QFN package. Each
of the positive channels includes an
output disconnect to prevent a direct
DC path from input to output when
LED DRIVER
20mA UP TO 24V
RVFB3
1.65M
(OPTIONAL)
C4
2.2µF
DS3
VFB3 VOUT3 CAP3
L4
10µH
SW3
L1
15µH
VIN
C6
1µF
SW1
RIFB3
8.06k
IFB3
CFB1
2.7pF
FLT
RFB1
1M
EN/SS1
FB1
EN/SS3
SW2
C5
100nF
VVIN
2.5V TO 6V
Triple-Output Supply for CCD
Imager and LED Backlight
DS1 C1
10µF
CAP1
LT3587
C3
100nF
VVIN
2.5V TO 6V
L2
15µH
C2
2.2µF
GND
L3
15µH
DS2
C1: MURATA GRM21BR61C106KE15L
C2: MURATA GRM188R61C225KE15D
C3, C5: MURATA GRM033R60J104KE19D
C4: MURATA GRM21BR71E225KA73L
C6: MURATA GRM155R61A105KE15D
C7: TAIYO YUDEN LMK212BJ226MG-T
FB2
CCD POSITIVE
15V
50mA
VOUT1
RFB2
1M
CFB2
6.8pF
C7
22µF
CCD NEGATIVE
–8V
100mA
CFB1: MURATA GRM1555C1H2R7BZ01D
CFB2: MURATA GRM1555C1H6R8BZ01D
L1, L2, L3: SUMIDA CDRH2D18/HP-150N
L4: TOKO 1071AS-100M
DS1, DS2, DS3: IR IR05H40CSPTR
Figure 1. Solution for a Li-Ion powered camera provides positive and negative
supplies for biasing a CCD imager and an LED driver for a 5-LED backlight
20
the switches are disabled. The LT3587
also includes a bidirectional fault pin
(FLT), which can be used for fault
indication (output) or for emergency
shutdown (input).
The LT3587 offers a wide output
range, up to 32V for the positive channels (channels 1 and 3) and –32V for
the inverter (channel 2). Channel 3
is conigurable as either a voltage or
current regulator. When conigured as
a current regulator, channel 3 uses a
1-wire output that requires no current
sense or high current ground return
lines, easing board layout. A single
resistor programs each of the three
channels output voltage levels and/or
the channel 3 output current level.
Intelligent soft-start allows for
sequential soft-start of channel 1 followed by the inverter negative output
using a single capacitor. Internal
sequencing circuitry disables the
inverter until channel 1 output has
reached 87% of its inal value.
Figure 1 shows a typical application
providing a positive and negative voltage bias for a CCD imager and a 20mA
current bias for an LED backlight. All
three channels of the LT3587 use a
constant frequency, current mode control scheme to provide voltage and/or
current regulation at the output.
The positive CCD bias is conigured as a simple non-synchronous
boost converter. Its output voltage is
set to 15V via the feedback resistor
RFB1. The 15µH inductor (L1) is sized
for a maximum load of 50mA. The
negative CCD bias is conigured as a
non-synchronous Ćuk converter. Its
output voltage is set at –8V using the
feedback resistor RFB2. The two 15µH
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN FEATURES L
VEN/SS1
2V/DIV
IVIN
500mA/DIV
VVOUT1
10V/DIV
VNEG
10V/DIV
VEN/SS1
2V/DIV
0V
IVIN
500mA/DIV
0mA
0V
VVOUT1
10V/DIV
0V
VNEG
10V/DIV
0mA
0V
0V
400µs/DIV
4ms/DIV
Figure 2. Start-up waveforms with no soft-start capacitor, and with a 10nF soft-start capacitor
(L2 and L3) inductors are sized for a
maximum load of 100mA.
The LED backlight driver is conigured as an output-current-regulated
boost converter. Its output current is
set at 20mA using the current programming resistor RIFB3. The 10µH
inductor (L4) is sized for a typical load
of 20mA at up to 24V. Note the optional
voltage feedback resistor, RVFB3, on
the LED driver. This resistor acts as
a voltage clamp on the LED driver
output, so that if one of the LED fails
open, the voltage on the LED driver
output is clamped to 24V.
Soft-Start
All channels feature soft-start (a slow
voltage ramp from zero to regulation)
to prevent potentially damaging large
inrush currents at start-up. Softstart is implemented via two separate
soft-start control pins: EN/SS1 and
EN/SS3. The EN/SS1 pin controls
the soft-start for channel 1 and the
inverter, while the EN/SS3 pin controls
the soft-start for channel 3. Both of
these soft-start pins are pulled up with
a 1µA internal current source.
A capacitor from the EN/SS1 pin
to ground (C3 in Figure 1) programs
a soft-start ramp for channel 1 and
channel 2 (the inverter). As the 1µA
current source charges up the capacitor, the regulation loops for channel
1 and channel 2 are enabled when
the EN/SS1 pin voltage rises above
200mV. During start-up, the peak
switch current for channel 1 proportionally rises with the soft-start voltage
ramp at the EN/SS1 pin. The inverter
switch current also follows the voltage
ramp at the EN/SS1 pin, but its switch
current ramp does not start until the
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
voltage on the EN/SS1 pin is at least
600mV. This ensures that channel 2
starts up after channel 1. Channel 1
and channel 2 regulation loops are
free running with full inductor current
when the voltage at the EN/SS1 pin
is above 2.5V.
In a similar fashion, a capacitor
from the EN/SS3 pin to ground (C5
in Figure 1) sets up a soft-start ramp
for channel 3. When the voltage at the
EN/SS3 pins goes above 200mV, regulation loop for channel 3 is enabled.
When the voltage at the EN/SS3 pin
is above 2V, the regulation loop for
channel 3 is free running with full
inductor current.
Start-Up Sequencing
The LT3587 also includes internal
sequencing circuitry that inhibits the
channel 2 from operating until the
feedback voltage of channel 1 (at the
FB1 pin) reaches about 1.1V (about
87% of the inal voltage). The size of the
soft-start capacitor controls channel
2 start-up behavior.
If there is no soft-start capacitor,
or a very small capacitor, then the
negative channel starts up immediately with full inductor current when
the positive output reaches 87% of its
inal value. If a large soft-start capacitor is used, then the EN/SS1 voltage
controls the inverter channel past
the point of regulation of the positive
channel. Figure 2 shows the start-up
sequencing without soft-start and with
a 10nF soft-start capacitor.
Output Disconnect
Both of the positive channels (channels
1 and 3) have an output disconnect
between their respective CAP and VOUT
pins. This disconnect feature prevents
a DC path from forming between VIN
and VOUT through the inductors when
switching is disabled (Figure 1).
For channel 1, this output disconnect feature is implemented using a
PMOS (M1) as shown in the partial block
diagram in Figure 3. When turned on,
M1 normally provides a low resistance,
low power dissipation path for delivering output current between the CAP1
pin and the VOUT1 pin. M1 is on as long
as the voltage difference between CAP1
and VIN is greater than 2.5V. This allows the positive bias to stay high as
long as possible while the negative bias
discharges during turn off.
LT3587
OVERVOLTAGE
PROTECTION
CAP3
CAP1
M2
C1
C4
M3
M1
VOUT3
VOUT1
DISCONNECT
CONTROL
SHDN1
TO INTERNAL
CIRCUIT
DISCONNECT
CONTROL
SHDN3
IFB3
RIFB3
Figure 3. Partial block diagram of the LT3587 showing the disconnect PMOS for channels 1 and 3
21
L DESIGN FEATURES
IVOUT1
500mA/DIV
IVOUT3
500mA/DIV
0mA
IL1
500mA/DIV
VCAP1
10V/DIV
VVOUT1
10V/DIV
IL4
500mA/DIV
VCAP3
10V/DIV
15V
15V
VVIN = 3.6V
C1 = 4.7µF
40µs/DIV
VCAP3
10V/DIV
24V
VVIN = 3.6V
C4 = 1µF
40µs/DIV
Figure 5. Channel 3 short circuit condition with and without 20mA current limit
PART RESET
ENSS1/ENSS3
5V/DIV
VNEG
10V/DIV
24V
VVOUT3
10V/DIV
40µs/DIV
VFLT
5V/DIV
VVOUT1
10V/DIV
0mA
IL4
500mA/DIV
VVOUT3
10V/DIV
Figure 4. Channel 1 short circuit event
VFLT
5V/DIV
FLT FORCED LOW
PART RESET
ENSS1/ENSS3
5V/DIV
VVOUT1
10V/DIV
SHORT
AT VOUT1
VNEG
10V/DIV
VVOUT3
20V/DIV
VVOUT3
20V/DIV
100ms/DIV
Figure 6. Fault detection
of a short circuit event
The disconnect transistor M1 is
current limited to provide a maximum
output current of 155mA. There is also
a protection circuit for M1 that limits
the voltage drop across CAP1 and
VOUT1 to about 10V. When the voltage
at CAP1 is greater than 10V, such as
during an output overload or short
circuit to ground, then M1 is set fully
on, without any current limit, to allow
for the voltage on CAP1 to discharge
as fast as possible. When the voltage
across CAP1 and VOUT1 reduces to
less than 10V, the output current is
then again limited to 155mA. Figure 4
shows the output voltage and current
during an overload event with VCAP1
initially at 15V.
The output disconnect feature on
channel 3 is implemented similarly
using M3 (Figure 3). However, in this
case M3 is only turned off when the
EN/SS3 pin voltage is less than 200mV
and the regulation loop for channel 3
is disabled.
The disconnect transistor M3 is also
current limited, providing a maximum
output current at VOUT3 of 100mA. M3
also has a similar protection circuit as
M1 that limits the voltage drop across
CAP3 and VOUT3 to about 10V. Figure 5
22
IVOUT3
500mA/DIV
0mA
100ms/DIV
Figure 7. Waveforms for when the
FLT pin is externally forced low
Fault Detection and Indicator
The LT3587 is a versatile,
highly integrated device
that provides a compact
solution for devices such
as cameras, handheld
computers and terminals
requiring multiple high
voltage supplies. A low part
count and a 3mm × 3mm
package keep the solution
size small. High efficiency
conversion makes it
suitable for battery powered
applications. Adjustable
output voltage and wide
output range of up to 32V for
the positive boosts, and –32V
for the inverter, make it a
flexible solution for systems
that require high voltage
supplies.
shows the output voltage and current
during an overload event with VCAP3
initially at 24V.
The LT3587 features fault detection on
all outputs and a fault indicator pin,
FLT. The fault detection circuitry is
enabled only when at least one of the
channels has completed the soft-start
process and is free running with full
inductor current. Once fault detection is enabled, if any of the enabled
channel feedback voltages (VFB1, VFB2
or the greater of VVFB3 and VIFB3) falls
below its regulation value for more
than 16ms, the FLT pin pulls low.
One particularly important case is
an overload or short circuit condition
on any of the outputs. In this case, if
the corresponding loop is unable to
bring the output back into regulation
within 16ms, a fault is detected and
the FLT pin pulls low.
Note that the fault condition is
latched—once activated all three channels are disabled. Enabling any of the
channels requires resetting the part
by shutting it down (forcing both the
EN/SS1 and EN/SS3 pins low below
200mV) and then on again. Figure 6
shows the waveforms when a short
circuit condition occurs at channel 1
for more than 16ms and the subsequent resetting of the part.
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN FEATURES L
VVIN
2.5V TO 5V
10µH
VVIN
2.5V TO 5V
10µH
VIN
SW3
1µF
VIN
SW3
LT3587
LT3587
VOUT3
IFB3
DAC
LTC2630
VDAC-OUT
1µF
CAP3
CAP3
VOUT3
LED DRIVER
IFB3
EN/SS3
LED DRIVER
EN/SS3
RIFB3
8.06k
RIFB3
8.06k
2.5V
PWM
FREQ
MN1
Si1304BDL
0V
Figure 8. Analog dimming using a DAC and a resistor
Besides acting as a fault output
indicator, the FLT pin is also an input
pin. If this pin is externally forced
below 400mV, the LT3587 behaves
as if a fault event has occurred and
all the channels turn off. In order to
turn the part back on, remove the
external voltage that forces the pin low
and reset the part. Figure 7 shows the
waveforms when the FLT pin is externally forced low and the subsequent
resetting of the part.
Dimming Control for
Channel 3 as a CurrentRegulated LED Driver
As shown in Figure 1, one of the most
common applications for the channel
3 is as a current regulator for a backlight LED driver. In many high end
display applications requiring an LED
backlight, the ability to dim the display
brightness is crucial for implementing
a power saving mode or to maintain
contrast in different ambient lighting
conditions.
There are two different ways to
implement a dimming control of
the LED string. LED current can be
adjusted by either using a digital to
analog converter (DAC) and a resistor
RIFB3 or by using a PWM signal.
Analog Dimming Using
a DAC and a Resistor
For some applications, the preferred
method of brightness control is using
a DAC and a resistor. This method
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
Figure 9. Driver for six LEDs with PWM dimming
is more commonly known as analog
dimming. This method is shown in
Figure 8.
Since the programmed VOUT3 current is proportional to the current
through RIFB3 , the LED current can be
adjusted by changing the DAC output
voltage. A higher DAC output voltage
level results in lower LED current and
hence lower overall brightness. For
accurate dimming control, keep the
DAC output impedance low enough
to sink approximately 1/200 of the
desired maximum LED current. Note
the maximum possible output current
is limited by the output disconnect
current limit to 100mA.
PWM Dimming
One problem with analog dimming as
described above is that changing the
forward current lowing in the LEDs
not only changes the brightness intensity of the LEDs, it also changes the
color. This is a problem for applications
IVOUT3
13mA/DIV
0mA
IL4
200mA/DIV
0mA
ENSS3
5V/DIV
0V
VVIN = 3.6V
6 LEDs
2ms/DIV
Figure 10. PWM dimming waveforms
that cannot tolerate any shift in the
LED chromaticity.
Controlling the LED intensity with
a direct PWM signal allows dimming
of the LEDs without changing the
color. A PWM frequency of ~80Hz or
higher guarantees that there is no
visible licker. The amount of on-time
in the PWM signal is proportional to
the intensity of the LEDs. The color of
the LEDs remains unchanged in this
scheme since the LED current value is
either zero or a constant value (IVOUT3
= 160V/RIFB3).
Figure 9 shows an LED driver for
six white LEDs. If the voltage at the
CAP3 pin is higher than 10V when
the LED is on, direct PWM dimming
method requires an external NMOS.
This external NMOS is tied between
the cathode of the lowest LED in the
string and ground.
The output disconnect feature
and the external NMOS ensure that
the LEDs quickly turn off without
discharging the output capacitor.
This allows the LEDs to turn on
faster. Figure 10 shows the PWM
dimming waveforms for the circuit in
Figure 9.
The time it takes for the LED current
to reach its programmed value sets the
achievable dimming range for a given
PWM frequency. At extreme lower end
of the duty cycle, the linear relation
between the average LED current
and the PWM duty cycle is no longer
preserved. The minimum on time is
23
L DESIGN FEATURES
chosen based on how much linearity
is required for the average LED current. For example for the circuit in
Figure 9, to produce approximately
10% deviation from linearity at the
lower duty cycle, the minimum on
time of the LED current is approximately 320µs (3.2% duty cycle) for a
3.6V input voltage and a 100Hz PWM
frequency. The achievable dimming
range for this application is then 30
to 1 (approximately the reciprocal of
the minimum duty cycle).
The dimming range can be signiicantly extended by combining PWM
dimming with analog dimming. The
color of the LEDs no longer remains
constant because the forward current
of the LED changes with the output
voltage of the DAC. For the six LED
application described above, the LEDs
can be dimmed irst by modulating the
duty cycle of the PWM signal with the
DAC output at 0V. Once the minimum
duty cycle is reached, the value of the
DAC output voltage can be increased
to further dim the LEDs. The use of
both techniques together allows the
average LED current for the six LED
application to be varied from 20mA
down to less than 1µA (a 20000:1
dimming ratio).
Channel 3 Overvoltage and
Overcurrent Protection
Channel 3 can be conigured either as
a voltage regulated boost converter or
as a current regulated boost converter.
The regulation loop of channel 3 uses
the greater of the two voltages at VFB3
and IFB3 as feedback to set the peak
current of its power switch. This architecture allows for a programmable
current limit on voltage regulation or
voltage limit on current regulation.
When conigured as a boost voltage regulator, a feedback resistor
from the output pin VOUT3 to the VFB3
pin sets the voltage level at VOUT3 at
a ixed level. In this case, the IFB3 pin
can either be grounded if no current
limiting is desired or be connected to
ground with a resistor to set an output
current limit value (ILIMIT). As briely
noted before, the pull up current on
the IFB3 pin is controlled to be typically
1/200 of the output load current at
24
Channel 3 can be configured
either as a voltage-regulated
boost converter or as a
current-regulated boost
converter. The regulation
loop of channel 3 uses the
greater of the two voltages
at VFB3 and IFB3 as feedback
to set the peak current
of its power switch. This
architecture allows for a
programmable current limit
on voltage regulation or a
voltage limit on
current regulation.
the VOUT3 pin. In this case, when the
load current is less than ILIMIT, channel
3 regulates the voltage at the VFB3 pin
to 0.8V. If there is an increase in load
current beyond ILIMIT, the voltage at
VFB3 starts to drop and the voltage at
IFB3 rises above 0.8V. The channel 3
loop then regulates the voltage at the
IFB3 pin to 0.8V, limiting the output
VVOUT3
5V/DIV
IVOUT3
13mA/DIV
15V
current at VOUT3 to ILIMIT. Figure 11
compares the transient responses
with and without current limit when
a current overload occurs.
The channel 3 CAP3 pin has over
voltage protection. When the voltage at
CAP3 is driven above 29V, the channel 3 loop is disabled and SW3 pin
stops switching. When conigured as
a boost current regulator, a feedback
resistor from the IFB3 pin to ground
sets the output current at VOUT3 at
a ixed level. In this case, if the VFB3
pin is grounded then the over voltage
protection defaults to 29V.
On the other hand a resistor can
be connected from the VOUT3 pin to
the VFB3 pin to set an output voltage
clamp (VCLAMP) level lower than 29V.
In this case, when the voltage level is
less than VCLAMP, the channel 3 loop
regulates the voltage at the IFB3 pin
to 0.8V. On the other hand, when
the output load fails open circuit or
disconnected, the voltage at IFB3 drops
to relect the lower output current
and the voltage at VFB3 starts to rise.
When the voltage at VOUT3 rises beyond
VCLAMP, the voltage at the VFB3 pin goes
VVOUT3
5V/DIV
20mA
LOAD STEP
IVOUT3
13mA/DIV
15V
20mA
LOAD STEP
IL4
200mA/DIV
IL4
200mA/DIV
200µs/DIV
VVIN = 3.6V
WITHOUT CURRENT LIMIT: IFB3
CONNECTED TO GND
VOUT3 STAYS AT 15V, OUTPUT CURRENT
INCREASES FROM 20mA TO 40mA
200µs/DIV
VVIN = 3.6V
WITH 20mA CURRENT LIMIT: RIFB3 = 8.06k
OUTPUT CURRENT STAYS AT 20mA,
VOUT3 DROPS FROM 15V TO 7.5V
Figure 11. Channel 3 in an output current overload event with and without output current limit
VVOUT3
10V/DIV
20V
OUTPUT LOAD
DISCONNECTED
IL4
200mA/DIV
VVOUT3
10V/DIV
20V
OUTPUT LOAD
DISCONNECTED
IL4
200mA/DIV
200µs/DIV
VVIN = 3.6V
WITHOUT PROGRAMMED OUTPUT VOLTAGE
CLAMP: VFB3 CONNECTED TO GND
200µs/DIV
VVIN = 3.6V
WITH PROGRAMMED OUTPUT
VOLTAGE CLAMP AT 24V
Figure 12. Channel 3 in an output open circuit with
and without programmed output voltage clamp
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN FEATURES L
above 0.8V. The channel 3 loop then
regulates the voltage at the VFB3 pin
to 0.8V, limiting the voltage level at
VOUT3 to VCLAMP. Figure 12 contrasts
the transient responses with and
without programmed VCLAMP when the
output load is disconnected.
Adjustable output voltage and wide
output range of up to 32V for the positive boosts, and –32V for the inverter,
make it a lexible solution for systems
that require high voltage supplies.
Channel 3’s ability to work as a voltage
regulator or as a true 1-wire current
Low Input Voltage
LED DRIVER
20mA UP TO 12V
While the LT3587’s VIN supply voltage
range is 2.5V to 6.0V, the inductors can
run off a lower voltage. Most portable
devices and systems have a separate
3.3V logic supply voltage, which can
be used to power the LT3587. This
allows the outputs to be powered
straight from the lower voltage power
source such as two alkaline cells.
This coniguration results in higher
eficiency. Figure 13 shows a typical
digital still camera application powered
this way. It has positive and negative
CCD supplies and an LED backlight
supply.
Conclusion
The LT3587 is a versatile, highly integrated device that provides a simple
solution to devices such as cameras,
handheld computers and terminals
requiring multiple high voltage supplies. A low part count and a compact
3mm × 3mm package keep the solution
size small. High eficiency conversion
makes it suitable for battery powered
applications.
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
VFB3 VOUT3 CAP3
L4
10µH
2AA CELLS
2V TO 3.2V
L1
15µH
SW3
DS1 C1
4.7µF
SW1
IFB3
CAP1
CFB1
3.3pF
FLT
LT3587
EN/SS1
EN/SS3
RFB1
787k
FB1
VIN
3.3V
SW2
C6
1µF
L2
15µH
2AA CELLS
2V TO 3.2V
GND
C2
2.2µF
C1: MURATA GRM21BR61E475KA12L
C2: MURATA GRM188R61C225KE15D
C4: MURATA GRM188R61E105KA12B
C6: MURATA GRM155R61A105KE15D
C7: MURATA GRM21BR71A106KE51L
CFB2
6.8pF
RFB2
1M
L3
15µH
CCD POSITIVE
15V
10mA
VOUT1
FB2
CCD NEGATIVE
–8V
20mA
C7
10µF
DS2
Replace Inductor
with Schottky for
Smaller Footprint
If higher current ripple is tolerable at
the output of the inverter (channel 2),
replace inductor L3 with a Schottky
diode D3 as shown in Figure 14.
Since the Schottky diode footprint
is usually smaller than the inductor
footprint, this alternate topology is
recommended for space constrained
applications. This topology is only
viable if the absolute value of the inverter output is greater than VIN. This
Schottky diode is conigured with the
anode connected to the output of the
inverter and the cathode to the output
end of the lying capacitor C2 as shown
in Figure 14.
C4
1µF
DS3
RVFB3
787k
(OPTIONAL)
RIFB3
8.06k
regulator give the LT3587 status as a
true all-in-one power supply.
Additional features, such as softstart, supply sequencing, output
disconnect and fault handling also add
to the versatility of this part and further
simplify power supply design. L
CFB1: MURATA GRM1555C1H3R3BZ01D
CFB2: MURATA GRM1555C1H6R3BZ01D
L1, L2, L3: SUMIDA CDRH2D18/HP-150N
L4: TOKO 1071AS-100M
DS1, DS2, DS3: NXP PMEG2005EB
Figure 13. Two AA cells produce CCD positive and
negative supplies and a driver for a 3-LED backlight.
OLED DRIVER
16V
20mA
C4
1µF
RVFB3
1.07M
RIFB3
7.15k
(OPTIONAL)
VOUT3
VFB3
L4
10µH
DS3
CAP3
SW3
L1
15µH
VIN
C6
1µF
C1
DS1 4.7µF
SW1
CAP1
IFB3
CFB1
2.7pF
LT3587
FLT
EN/SS1
EN/SS3
C3
100nF
C5
100nF
VVIN
2.5V TO 6V
VVIN
2.5V TO 6V
L2
15µH
FB1
GND
SW2
C2
2.2µF
DS2
C1: TAIYO YUDEN TMK212BJ475KG-T
C2: TAIYO YUDEN EMK107BJ225KA-T
C3, C5: TAIYO YUDEN JMK063BJ104KP-F
C4: TAIYO YUDEN GMK107BJ105KA-T
C6: TAIYO YUDEN LMK105BJ105KV-F
VOUT1
FB2
D3
RFB1
1M
RFB2
1M
CFB2
6.8pF
C7
22µF
CCD POSITIVE
15V
50mA
CCD NEGATIVE
–8V
100mA
C7: TAIYO YUDEN LMK212BJ226MG-T
CFB1: TAIYO YUDEN EMK105SK2R7JW-F
CFB2: TAIYO YUDEN EMK105SH6R8JW-F
L1, L2: SUMIDA CDRH2D18/HP-150N
L4: TOKO 1071AS-100M
DS1, DS2, DS3, D3: NXP PMEG2005EB
Figure 14. Li-ion driver for an OLED panel and a CCD imager
with a Schottky diode replacing the inverter’s output inductor
25
L DESIGN FEATURES
PD Interface for PoE+ Includes 25.5W
Classification and Protection Features
in a Low Profile 4mm × 3mm DFN
by Kirk Su
Introduction
Overview of the Third Generation
Power over Ethernet System (PoE+)
The Power over Ethernet (PoE) standard speciies how DC power can be
distributed alongside high speed data through a single RJ45 connector. The
second generation standard (IEEE 802.3af) allows Powered Devices (PDs) to
draw 12.95W from Power Sourcing Equipment (PSEs). The popularity of the
standard has PD equipment vendors running up against the 12.95W power
limit. To answer the call for more power, the newer IEEE 802.3at standard
(also called PoE+) establishes a high power allocation while maintaining
compatibility with the existing IEEE 802.3af systems.
In the new standard, PSEs and PDs are distinguished as Type-1 if they
comply with the IEEE 802.3af power levels, or Type-2 if they comply with
the IEEE 802.3at power levels. The maximum available power to a Type-2
PD is 25.5W.
The IEEE 802.3at standard also establishes a new method for Type-2
equipment to mutually identify each other while maintaining compatibility
with the existing PoE systems. A Type-2 PSE has the option of declaring
the presence of high power by performing 2-event classiication (Layer 1)
or by communicating with the PD over the data line (Layer 2). In turn, a
Type-2 PD must recognize both layers of communications and identify a
Type-2 PSE before beginning 25.5W operations. L
26
GND (V)
40
1st CLASS
2nd CLASS
30
ON
UVLO
20
10
DETECTION V1
DETECTION V2
1st MARK 2nd MARK
INRUSH
PD CURRENT
No additional external components
are required to program the LTC4265
since all features (signature resistance, UVLO, OVLO, inrush current,
and thermal protection) are built in
and programmed into the LTC4265
50
LOAD, ILOAD
1st CLASS
2nd CLASS
40mA
TIME
DETECTION V1
DETECTION V2
50
GND – VOUT (V)
The LTC4265 is a PoE PD
interface that can identify
2-event classification
protocol and present an
active signal as required
for operation in an IEEE
802.3at-compliant PD. In
addition, the LTC4265 may
be configured for a variety of
auxiliary power options with
the aid of the shutdown and
signature corrupt features.
to guarantee a smooth power-up
transition and PD operation with any
Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE). This
eliminates additional component costs
and cumbersome calculations that
1st MARK 2nd MARK
dV = INRUSH
dt
C1
40
30
UVLO
ON
UVLO
20
T = RLOAD C1
10
TIME
TIME
GND – T2PSE (V)
The third generation Power over Ethernet standard increases the power
available to PDs to 25.5W, up from
the earlier standard’s 12.95W (see
sidebar). In the new standard, a Type-2
(high power) PD must communicate via
handshake with Type-2 power sourcing equipment (PSE) to determine that
the PSE is capable of providing high
power. Type-2 PSEs are backwards
compatible to the old standard.
The LTC4265 is a PoE PD interface
that can identify 2-event classiication
(see sidebar) protocol and present an
active signal as required for operation
in an IEEE 802.3at-compliant PD. In
addition, the LTC4265 may be conigured for a variety of auxiliary power
options with the aid of the shutdown
and signature corrupt features.
The LTC4265 is highly integrated
and easy to apply, requiring only one
classiication programming resistor.
–10
–20
–30
–40
TRACKS
VIN
–50
INRUSH = 100mA
ILOAD =
RCLASS = 30.9Ω
VIN
RLOAD
GND
LTC4265
IIN
PSE
RCLASS GND
RCLASS
RLOAD
C1
VOUT
T2PSE
VIN
VOUT
Figure 1. Example of 2-event
classification waveform
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN FEATURES L
are required in other power interface
products to set thresholds, signature
resistance, and current limits. The
LTC4265 comes in a low proile,
thermally enhanced, 4mm × 3mm
DFN package.
input voltage into the Mark voltage
range of 6.9V to 10V, signaling the
1st Mark event. The PD in the Mark
voltage range presents a load current
between 0.25mA to 4mA. A Type-2
PSE repeats this sequence, signaling
What is 2-Event
Classification?
ACTIVE-HIGH ENABLE
The IEEE 802.3at establishes two
ways to communicate the presence of
a Type-2 PSE. The Layer 1 approach
requires a PSE to perform 2-event
classiication, where classiication
probing is performed twice. The Layer
2 approach requires the PSE to communicate over the high speed data line.
A Type-2 PD is required to recognize a
Type-2 PSE using either layer of communication. Layer 1 communication
using 2-event classiication is included
in the IEEE 802.3at standard for the
beneit of PSEs/power injectors which
do not have access to the high speed
data line.
Since Layer 2 communications
takes place directly between the PSE
and the LTC4265 load, the LTC4265
concerns itself only with recognizing
2-event classiication. Figure 1 shows
an example of a 2-event classiication.
The 1st classiication event occurs
when the PSE presents an input
voltage between 14.5V to 20.5V and
the LTC4265 presents a class 4 load
current. A Type-2 PSE then drops the
GND
TO
PSE
VIN
TO PD
LOAD
VOUT
GND
RS
10k
LTC4265
TO
PSE
R9
100k
PWRGD
PD
LOAD
SHDN
D9
5.1V
MMBZ5231B
–54V
VIN
VOUT
ACTIVE-LOW ENABLE
GND
RS
10k
LTC4265
TO
PSE
R10
100k
PWRGD
V+
PD
LOAD
Q1
FMMT2222
D9
MMBD4148
–54V
VIN
VOUT
4265 F08
Figure 3. Examples of enabling/disabling the PD load via the complementary power good pins
2
3
TX+
T1
TVS
+
TX–
RX+
TO PHY
4
C1
BR1
PD
LOAD
–
RX–
36V
SPARE+
GND
7
8
T2PSE
TO PD
LOAD
OPTION 2: SHUNT CONFIGURATION FOR
ACTIVE HIGH/OPEN COLLECTOR OUTPUT
Figure 2. Interfacing with the
Type-2 PSE via the T2PSE pin
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
LTC4265
+
10k
5
RP
VOUT
0.1µF
100V
100k
GND
VIN
VIN
RUN
ACTIVE-LOW ENABLE
6
V+
–54V
PWRGD
–54V
1
RP
OPTION 1: SERIES CONFIGURATION FOR
ACTIVE LOW/LOW IMPEDANCE OUTPUT
TO
PSE
PD
LOAD
LTC4265
TO
PSE
RJ45
T2PSE
LTC4265
GND
V+
LTC4265
–54V
the 2nd Classiication and 2nd Mark
event occurrence.
The Type-2 PSE then applies power
to the PD and the LTC4265 charges
up the reservoir capacitor C1 with a
controlled inrush current. When C1
is fully charged, and the LTC4265
BR2
SPARE–
10k
–
ISOLATED
WALL
ADAPTER
SHDN
VIN
VOUT
+
D1
–
T1 = COILCRAFT ETHI-230LD
BR1, BR2 = DF1501S
Figure 4. Auxiliary power supply. Auxiliary power takes
precedence over PoE power (using the SHDN pin).
27
28
3.65k
T2P (TO MICROCONTROLLER)
VCC
1.2k
PS2801-1-L
2k
TLV431A
10nF
4.7nF
5.1Ω
2.2nF
2kV
5.1Ω
158k
158k
100pF
332k
82k
GND BLANK
10.0k
PGND
SD_VSEC
VOUT
T2PSE
VIN
SHDN
1.5
0.1µF
100V
2 2.5 3 3.5 4
LOAD CURRENT (A)
4.5
42V
50V
57V
5
30.9Ω
1
0.5
70
75
80
85
90
95
65
SMAJ58A
RCLASS
GND
LTC4265
–54V
FROM
SPARE
PAIR
–54V
FROM
DATA
PAIR
B1100 s 8 PLCS
Figure 5. PoE-based self-driven synchronous forward power supply
PS22801-1-L
20k
5V
51k
GND
0.22µF
22.1k
ROSC
SS_MAXDC
DELAY
FB
VREF
LT1952
SOUT
VIN
BAS516
10µF
100V
+
10µH
2.2µF
100V
237k
10µF
16V
33k
VCC
0.1µF
BC857BF
33k
COMP
OC
ISENSE
133Ω
OUT
10k
BAS516
0.1µF
BAS516
IRF6217
1.5k
4.7nF
250V
22k
FDS2582
•
50mΩ
•
•
PA2431NL
BAS516
1mH
DO1608C-105
18V
PDZ18B
GND
EFFICIENCY (%)
The LTC4265 has three output signals
that interface to other blocks within
a PD. The Type-2 PSE indicator bit
(T2PSE) alerts the PD load that it may
consume the full 25.5W available in
the new IEEE 802.3at speciication.
Two complementary power good pins
(PWRGD and PWRGD) are typically
used to enable a DC/DC converter
after the PD is fully powered.
When a Type-2 PSE completes the
2-Event classiication sequence, the
LTC4265 recognizes this sequence,
and provides an indicator bit, declaring
the presence of a Type-2 PSE. The open
drain output provides the capability
to use this signal to communicate to
the PD load.
Figure 2 shows two interface options using the T2PSE pin and an
optoisolator. The T2PSE pin is active
low and connects to the optoisolator
to communicate across the isolation
barrier. The pull up resistor RP is
sized according to the requirements
of the optoisolator operating current,
the pull-down capability of the T2PSE
pin, and the choice of V+. V+ can come
from the PoE supply rail (which the
LTC4265 GND is tied to), or from the
voltage source that supplies power to
the DC/DC converter. The former has
the advantage of not drawing power
unless T2PSE is declared active.
Figure 3 shows options for interfacing the LTC4265 power good pin
to the PD load, usually via the run/
enable/shutdown pins of a DC/DC
converter.
The active high PWRGD pin features
an open collector output referenced
to VOUT, which can interface directly
with the run/enable pin of a DC/DC
converter. When the PD is powered
FDS8880
Interfacing to the LTC4265
5.1Ω FDS8880
1nF
1nF
6.8µH
PG0702.682
+
declares power good, the T2PSE output
presents an active low signal, or low
impedance output with respect to VIN,
which alerts the PD load that a Type-2
PSE is present and 25.5W applications
may operate.
In essence, a Type-2 PSE recognizes
a Type-2 PD when the PSE classiies
the PD and sees a class 4 load current.
A Type-2 PD recognizes a Type-2 PSE
when the PSE classiies twice.
11.3k
5V
5A
220µF
6.3V
PSLVOJ227M(12)
L DESIGN FEATURES
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
T2P
(TO MICROCONTROLLER)
47µF
16V
+
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
10k
LTV357TA
1
51k
GND
Figure 6. High efficiency 12V isolated power supply
10k
33pF
0.1µF
38.3k
2.2k
PGDLY
tON SYNC RCMP
VIN
29.4k
3.01k
FB
VCC
100k
ENDLY
LT3825
UVLO
SHDN
SG
SG
20Ω
12k
VC
GND
OSC SFST CCMP
SENSE–
4.7nF
33mΩ
PG
SENSE+
FDS2582
15µF
16V
PE-68386
4
5
•
•
8
1nF
1µF
100Ω
SG
2.2nF
2kV
47pF
BAS21
BAT54
15Ω
2.2nF
FDS3572
15Ω
470pF
2kV
•
•
150Ω
39k
2.2µF
100V
77
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0
LOAD CURRENT (A)
79
81
83
85
89
91
93
87
42V
48V 57V
EXCLUDING BRIDGES
T2PSE
VOUT
–54V FROM
SPARE PAIR
30.9Ω
RCLASS
LTC4265
GND
14k
383k
10µF
100V
+
10µH
SMAJ58A
0.1µF
100V
B1100 s 8 PLCS
–54V FROM
DATA PAIR
continued on page 4
GND
In many applications, the PD can
run from the PoE port and/or from
an auxiliary power source such as a
wall adapter. Auxiliary power can be
injected into an LTC4265-based PD at
the input of the LTC4265, the output
of the LTC4265, or even the output
of the DC/DC converter. Some PD
applications may also prioritize the
auxiliary supply or the PoE supply,
and/or require a seamless transition
between PoE and auxiliary power.
Figure 4 shows the most common
auxiliary power method where auxiliary power is injected between the PD
interface and the DC/DC converter. In
this example, the auxiliary port injects
48V onto the line via diode D1. The
components surrounding the SHDN
pin are selected so that the LTC4265
disconnects power to the output when
the auxiliary supply reaches 36V.
This coniguration is an auxiliarydominant coniguration. That is, the
auxiliary power source supplies the
power even if PoE power is already
present. When the auxiliary power
is applied, the PoE channel stops
drawing power. The PSE at this point
recognizes that the PD does not draw
any current and may cease power
delivery to the PD.
This coniguration also provides
a seamless transition from PoE to
auxiliary power when auxiliary power
MMBT3906 MMBT3904
1µF
16V
20k
10µF
16V
0.33µH
•
PA2467NL
Configuring a PD for
Auxiliary Power
EFFICIENCY (%)
up by the PSE, the PWRGD pin is
high impedance with respect to VOUT.
An internal 14V clamp protects the
DC/DC converter from excessive voltage. The PWRGD pin is also designed
to become high impedance when the
SHDN pin is invoked in an auxiliary
power application. This prevents the
PWRGD pin from interfering with the
converter operation when auxiliary
power is present.
The active low PWRGD pin connects
to an internal, open drain MOSFET
referenced to VIN and can interface
directly to the shutdown pin of a DC/
DC converter. When the PD is powered
up by the PSE, the PWRGD pin is low
impedance with respect to VIN.
12V
2A
DESIGN FEATURES L
29
L DESIGN IDEAS
Primary-Side Sensing Takes
Complexity out of Isolated
Flyback Converter Design
Introduction
Flyback converters are widely used
in isolated DC/DC applications, but
they are not necessarily a designer’s
irst choice. Power supply designers grudgingly choose a lyback out
of necessity for electronic isolation;
certainly not because they are an
easy to design. A lyback converter
requires that signiicant design time
be devoted to transformer design, a
task further complicated by limited
off-the-shelf transformer selection and
the necessity for customized magnetics. Moreover, the lyback converter
has stability issues due to the wellknown right-half-plane (RHP) zero
in the control loop, which is further
complicated by the propagation delay
of an optocoupler.
The LT3573 isolated monolithic
lyback converter solves many of the
design dificulties commonly associDESIGN IDEAS
Primary-Side Sensing Takes
Complexity out of Isolated
Flyback Converter Design ..................30
Tiger Zhou
Easy Automotive Power Supplies:
Compact Regulator Produces
Dual Outputs as Low as 0.8V from
3.6V–36V and is Unfazed by
60V Transients..................................32
Peter J. Andrews
High Power 2-Phase Synchronous
Boost Replaces Hot Diodes with
Cool FETs—No Heat Sinks Required
.........................................................35
Narayan Raja, Tuan Nguyen
and Theo Phillips
100V Controller in 3mm × 3mm
QFN or MSE Drives High Power
LED Strings from Just About
Any Input ..........................................37
Keith Szolusha
Parallel Buck-Boost µModule
Regulators to Produce High Current
in Sub-2.8mm Height Applications
.........................................................40
Judy Sun, Sam Young and Henry Zhang
30
by Tiger Zhou
T1
1:1
VIN
5V TO 15V
4.7µF
0.22µF
VIN
200k
2k
D1
T1
SHDN/UVLO
90.9k
D2
LT3573
RFB
VOUT+
5V, 0.2A
47µF
VOUT–
27.4k
RREF
6.04k
TC
RILIM
SS
VC
20k
GND
SW
BIAS
24.9k
10k
0.01µF
2.2nF
VIN
T1: BH ELECTRONICS, L10-1022
D1: B240A
D2: 1N4148W
Figure 1. Amazingly simple flyback converter takes advantage of the primary side sensing
scheme of the LT3573. Note the absence of an optocoupler. Also note the tiny coupling inductor
available from many magnetics vendors.
ated with lyback converters by using
a primary-side sensing scheme that is
capable of detecting the output voltage
through the lyback switching node
waveform. During the switch off-period, the diode delivers the current to
the output, and the output voltage is
thus relected to the primary-side of
the lyback transformer (or the switch
node). The magnitude of the switch
node voltage is the summation of the
input voltage and relected output
voltage. The lyback converter is able
to reconstruct the output voltage from
the measurement of the switching
node voltage during the off period.
This scheme has previously proven
itself in Linear Technology’s family
of photolash capacitor charger ICs.
Design is simpliied by getting rid of
the optocoupler while maintaining
the galvanic isolation between the
primary-side and secondary-side of
the transformer.
The LT3573’s utilization of boundary mode operation further reduces
converter size and simpliies system
design. The lyback converter turns
on the 1.25A, 60V internal switch
right after the secondary diode current reduces to zero, while it turns
off when the switch current reaches
the pre-deined current limit. Thus it
always operates at the transition of
continuous conduction mode (CCM)
and discontinuous conduction mode
(DCM), which is called boundary mode.
Boundary mode operation also offers
a superior load regulation.
Other features, such as soft-start,
adjustable current limit, undervoltage
lockout and temperature compensation further facilitate the lyback
converter design. Figure 1 shows
a simple flyback converter using
LT3573.
Primary-Side Sensing
Needs No Optocoupler
An optocoupler is essential for a traditional lyback converter. It transmits
the output voltage feedback signal
through an optical link while maintaining an isolation barrier. However,
the optocoupler current transfer ratio
(CTR) often changes with temperature,
degrading accuracy. Also, the optocoupler causes a propagation delay,
which impacts the dynamic response
of the control loop.
The LT3573 eliminates the need for
an optocoupler by sensing the output
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN IDEAS L
SW VOLTAGE
The LT3573 simplifies the
design of flyback converters
by using a primary-side
sensing scheme that detects
the output voltage through
the flyback switching node
waveform.
SW CURRENT
DIODE CURRENT
Figure 2. LT3573 flyback
converter in boundary mode.
voltage on the primary-side. The output voltage is accurately measured at
the primary-side switching node waveform during the off period. In addition
to the obvious simpliication and cost
savings of this design, this scheme
improves dynamic performance during
load transients, which further simpliies the control loop design.
Figure 2 shows the LT3573 lyback
converter voltage and current waveform in boundary mode. Assuming a
1:1 transformer is used; the controlto-output transfer function is:
¥
1 ´
R ¦ RC s v C µ¶
§
1 D
v
1
2
R RC svC
Boundary Mode Operation
Reduces Converter Size and
Simplifies System Design
G VC
Since the lyback converter operates in
boundary mode, the switch is always
turned on at zero current and the diode
has no reverse recovery loss. Reducing
power losses allows the lyback converter to operate at a relatively high
switching frequency, which in turn
reduces the transformer size when
compared to lower frequency operation. Figure 1 shows an isolated lyback
using a small coupling inductor with
19µH primary inductance.
Another beneit of boundary mode
operation is a simpliied control loop.
Where R is the load resistor, C is
the output capacitor, RC is the ESR of
the output capacitor and D is the duty
cycle. From this, a load pole at
sp 1
RC
and ESR zero at
sz 1
RCC
are observed. This reduced-order
transfer function can be easily compensated by an external VC network.
T1
3:1:1
VIN
9V TO 30V
4.7µF
0.22µF
VIN
357k
2k
D1
VOUT
5V, 1A
D2
51.1k
LT3573
84.5k
RFB
RREF
TC
6.04k
RILIM
SW
SS
GND TEST BIAS
VC
D3
20k
10k
24.9k
0.01µF
2.2nF
1µF
Boundary Mode Operation for
Superior Load Regulation
Since the diode voltage drop is included
in the relected output voltage, it can
affect load regulation in primary-side
sensing lyback converters that operate in CCM. The reason is the diode
has nonlinear I-V characteristics.
Other methods such as load regulation compensation must be used if
a tight load regulation is required.
However, the load regulation is much
improved in boundary mode operation
because the relected output voltage is always sampled at the diode
current zero-crossing. The LT3573
lyback converter has a typical 1%
load regulation.
Figure 3 shows a 5V, 1A lyback
converter that accepts a 9V to 30V
input. The BIAS winding is used to
improve the system eficiency. The
TC resistor compensates the output
voltage at all temperatures, the UVLO
resistors set the intended input range,
and the current limit resistor programs
the output current.
47µF
COM
SHDN/UVLO
The simpliied control loop network
also eases transformer design. The
control-to-output transfer function
has no inductance component, which
means the lyback converter easily
tolerates transformer variations. The
transformer inductance only affects
the converter switching frequency; it
does not affect the converter output
capability and stability. The data sheet
includes a detailed design example,
which outlines converter design
guidelines.
D1: B340A
D2: 1N4148W
D3: CMDSH-3
T1: PULSE PA2454NL
Conclusion
The LT3573 simpliies the design of
isolated lyback converters with a
primary-side sensing scheme and
boundary mode operation. Its wide
3V to 40V input range, and its ability to deliver 7W output power make
it suitable for industrial, automotive
and medical applications. It also
includes undervoltage lockout, softstart, temperature compensation,
adjustable current limit and external
compensation. L
Figure 3. A 9V–30V input, 5V/1A flyback converter with
a BIAS winding to maximize the system efficiency.
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
31
L DESIGN IDEAS
Easy Automotive Power Supplies:
Compact Regulator Produces Dual
Outputs as Low as 0.8V from 3.6V–36V
and is Unfazed by 60V Transients
by Peter J. Andrews
Introduction
The LT3509 dual channel step-down
regulator operates over an impressively vast supply range of 3.6V to more
than 36V, but its real distinguishing
feature is its ability to handily protect
both itself and downstream components from transient input voltages
up to 60V. It accomplishes this by
entering a safe shutdown mode when
the supply exceeds 38V, such as load
dump events in automotive electrical
systems.
In a vehicle electrical system,
overvoltage transients can occur when
heavy loads are switched because the
rapid change in current across the wiring inductance induces a high voltage.
These transients are usually short in
duration, from several microseconds to
several milliseconds. Longer duration
voltage surges can happen when the
battery is disconnected and the alternator and its regulator must respond to
reduce the energizing ield in the rotor.
This can take several hundred milliseconds, enough time to damage electronic
components and subsystems.
6V TO 36V
(TRANSIENT TO 60V)
R1
24.9k
C4
2200µF
+
R1
1M
R5
100k
FAULT
Q1
BC847B/C
RUN/SS1,2
R3
499k
R2
931k
Q2
BC847B/C
R4
210k
Figure 1. LT3509 RUN/SS to FAULT signal interface
The LT3509 protects itself and
downstream systems from transient
overvoltage events by shutting down
for the duration of the event. For
non-critical systems, that is all the
protection that is needed, as long as
power is restored relatively quickly.
For critical systems that require full
functionality during a transient event,
a supercapacitor ride-through circuit
can continue to provide hold-up
power (see Linear Technology Design
Note 450 or the cover article from
the September 2008 issue of Linear
Technology magazine). This article
shows a circuit that allows powered
systems to ride-through transients
without requiring a reset.
A Little About the LT3509
The LT3509 integrates popular high
voltage features into a compact dual
supply solution for a wide range of
applications. Each of two channels
can produce up to 0.7A at an output
voltage as low as 0.8V to within a
C1
4.7µF
L1
3.3µH
VOUT1
1.8V
700mA
VIN
6V TO 16V
(TRANSIENT TO 60V)
VOUT
3.3V
C2
0.1µF
VIN
BD
BOOST1
BOOST2
SW1
L2
C3
0.1µF 6.8µH
VOUT2
3.3V
700mA
SW2
LT3509
D1
C5
10µF
D2
DA1
DA2
FB1
FB2
R5
931k
RUN/SS1 RUN/SS2
R2
20k
D1, D2 = DFLS160
Q1, Q2 = BC847B/C
R4
1M
C6
2.2nF
SYNC
C7
2.2nF
RT
GND
R3
61.9k
R9
69.8k
R8
100k
Q1 R6
210k
R7
499k
+
C9
1000µF
FAULT
Q2
R10
22.1k
C8
10µF
fSW = 700kHz
Figure 2. 12V auto battery to 3.3V and 1.8V with hold-up capacitors and FAULT indicator
32
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN IDEAS L
half a volt of the input supply. It has
integrated BOOST diodes and internal
compensation to minimize the component count and the required board
area. Robust short-circuit protection
is also provided using catch diode current sensing. The ride-through feature
is particularly useful in automotive
applications, as is the wide operating
frequency range of 300kHz to 2.2MHz
and the ability to synchronize to an
external reference clock. The switching
frequency can be chosen or externally
driven to meet stringent EMI requirements.
Riding Through
Supply Transients
One way to reduce the ride-through
energy storage requirements is to
provide a FAULT signal to the powered
systems so that that they can enter a
low power state for the duration of the
event. For example a microcontroller
could enter a HALT state, digital circuitry could stop or reduce the clock
frequency, displays could be blanked
and audio circuits muted. This reduces
the power draw to a minimum so that
the output voltages can be maintained
with relatively small electrolytic capacitors.
The LT3509 itself does not provide
a dedicated logic signal to indicate
that an overvoltage event has occurred but it is possible to detect the
event by monitoring the RUN/SS pins.
These pins are pulled low by an internal device whenever an overvoltage
condition exists, but as they were
not intended to drive logic directly
a small interface circuit is required
as shown in Figure 1. The RUN/SS
IL
0.5A/DIV
VOUT
5V/DIV
TIME 1ms/DIV
Figure 3. Soft-start waveforms
pins are pulled up to approximately
3.0V by an internal 1µA pull-up in
normal operation and are pulled to
about 0.6V during a fault condition.
This circuit has a switching threshold
of around 1.4V and draws very little
input current. The circuit operates at
a very low current and the transistors
were carefully selected—generic types
may not give satisfactory performance.
Q1’s collector must be supplied from
VIN with a resistor divider as shown.
If connected to VOUT, the collector
base junction will be forward biased
at power-up and thus preventing the
LT3509 from starting up. The resistor divider keeps the collector-emitter
voltage of Q1 below its breakdown
voltage.
Automotive Accessory
Supply 3.3V and 1.8V with
Ride-Through Capability
The schematic in Figure 2 shows a
typical application for a dual supply
system requiring 3.3V and 1.8V rails,
such as a radio or satellite navigation system. The goal is to maintain
support for a ride-through capability
described in the introduction where
the output voltage is maintained just
14.2V NOMINAL
(TRANSIENT TO 60V)
60V
14.2V
VSW
20V/DIV
TRANSIENT
OVERVOLTAGE
GENERATOR
CONTROL
PULSE
VOUT, 3.3V
LT3509
FIGURE 2
APPLICATION
CIRCUIT
FAULT
SIGNAL
Figure 4. Test and demonstration set-up
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
CONTROLLABLE
LOAD CIRCUIT
OFF
long enough for the powered circuitry
to enter a low current state. The key
features are that it includes the fault
indication circuit of Figure 1 and the
standard 10µF ceramic output capacitors C5 and C8 are augmented with
1000µF electrolytic capacitors C4 and
C9. The ceramic capacitors should
still be used to control high frequency
ripple as they have much lower ESR
than the electrolytic types.
The operating frequency is kept
low to ensure that the 1.8V channel
operates in ixed frequency mode at the
normal operating voltage. The output
capacitors have to support the output
voltage while the regulator shuts off
due to an overvoltage ride-through
event. They must also supply the full
load current for the time taken from
the start of the overvoltage event
until the load is put in a powered
down state. The delay time from the
overvoltage condition until the fault
signal is asserted is dependent on the
capacitor value on the RUN/SS pin.
With the component values in the
example circuit this is approximately
40µs. To this must be added any time
for the powered circuit to shut down.
The voltage droop during this time can
be calculated from ΔV = I • t/C. So for
700mA, 40µs and 1000µF gives ΔV =
0.7A • 40µs/1000µF = 28mV.
Once the powered circuits have
shut down, the droop rate depends
on the residual current draw and the
duration of the transient event. In an
ideal case the system power should
reduce to a few µA in which case the
dominant current draw will be from
the feedback divider, which in the
example circuit takes around 37µA.
Using the same equation, for a 400ms
event, the droop during the transient
is: ΔV = 40µA • 0.4s/1000µF = 16mV.
Clearly the biggest droop occurs during
the initial loss of power.
One last thing to consider is what
happens when the transient is inished
and normal operation resumes. The
FAULT signal de-asserts as soon as the
RUN/SS pin rises above the threshold, but the regulator is not able to
deliver full current until the RUN/SS
pin reaches approximately 2V. It may
be necessary to create a small delay,
33
L DESIGN IDEAS
VIN
20V/DIV
VIN
20V/DIV
VIN
20V/DIV
VOUT
1V/DIV
VOUT
1V/DIV
VOUT
1V/DIV
RUN/SS2
2V/DIV
RUN/SS2
2V/DIV
RUN/SS2
2V/DIV
FAULT
2V/DIV
FAULT
2V/DIV
FAULT
2V/DIV
TIME 100µs/DIV
Figure 5. Transition to ride-through mode
by software perhaps, from the time
FAULT goes away until full current
is demanded.
The LT3509 prevents inrush
currents at start-up with a current
limiting soft-start feature, which allows the available output current to
ramp up slowly. Both the peak current
limit and the valley current limit (the
one sensed through the catch diodes)
are controlled by the voltage on the
RUN/SS pins, so as capacitors C6
and C7 charge up, the output current slowly increases to its normal
maximum value. An example of the
soft-start characteristic is shown in
Figure 3.
TIME 2ms/DIV
TIME 100ms/DIV
Figure 6. Complete ride-through event
Demonstration
and Test Results
The ride-through performance the application of Figure 1 is tested using the
setup shown in Figure 4. A switched
supply produces either a normal input
or an overvoltage transient. The output
is connected to an active load circuit
with ON/OFF controlled by the FAULT
signal. Figure 5 shows the start of the
overvoltage event on a fast time base
to show the step that occurs as the
regulator shuts off, but before the load
is reduced. Figure 6 shows the entire
400ms transient and the droop that
happens when there is no output but
also very little load. Figure 7 shows
Figure 7. End of ride-through event
the end of the event on an expanded
timescale.
Conclusion
Overvoltage transients are a fact of life
in automobile and industrial power
systems. The LT3509, combined with
a small, low cost capacitor, can be
used to both protect components from
overvoltage transients and allow the
downstream systems to ride through
the event without having to completely
reset. It is possible to ride through an
overvoltage transient of even several
hundred milliseconds, provided a brief
interruption of service can be tolerated. L
LTC4265, continued from page 29
is applied. That is, the DC/DC converter continues to operate through the
power transition. But the transition
from auxiliary power to PoE power
(when the auxiliary is removed) is not
seamless since a PSE must redetect
the PD before applying power.
Guidelines for Pairing
the LTC4265 with a
DC/DC Converter
The LTC4265 can be paired with just
about any DC/DC converter, but two
are particularly well suited to Type-2
Power over Ethernet Applications:
the LT3825 lyback controller and
LT1952 forward controller. Forward
and lyback converters satisfy the
electronic isolation requirement in
the IEEE 802.3af and IEEE 802.3at
speciications. In addition to the topology requirements, the LT3825 and
LT1952 controllers are selected based
on their ability to tolerate the wide PoE
line voltage range, which varies from
36V to 57V.
34
As PoE power levels increase, the
Schottky diode typically placed at
the output of the secondary winding
becomes an eficiency drain as it dissipates more power with increased
output current. In addition, the output
diode requires a considerably large
heat sink and board area to displace
the heat.
For these reasons, many powerhungry PDs are better served by
synchronous DC/DC topologies,
where the output diode is replaced with
an active switch synchronized to the
operation of the controller. Both the
LT3825 and LT1952 include built-in
synchronous drivers, enabling the use
of an active switch.
Figure 5 shows the LTC4265
paired with an LT1952 in a self-driven
synchronous forward power supply
coniguration. Figure 6 shows the
LTC4265 paired with a LT3825. This
is a synchronous lyback power supply coniguration with no optoisolator
feedback. The LT3825 may also be
conigured for a forward topology.
These are not the only DC/DC
converter solutions that work well
with the LTC4265. The LTC4265 can
be easily applied in applications that
already have a DC/DC converter.
Conclusion
The LTC4265 PD interface provides
the features required in a PD interface
to operate under the IEEE 802.3at
standard with minimum component
count. Since all of the features (signature resistance, UVLO, OVLO, inrush
current, and thermal protection) are
built in, little is needed around its low
proile 4mm × 3mm DFN package to
create a complete PoE Type-2 interface.
Simply pair it with a PoE-ready DC/DC
converter by hooking up the Type-2
and power good indicator pins, and
a high power PD is ready to go. Add
to this the ability to handle auxiliary
power, and the LTC4265 proves a
versatile PoE+ tool. L
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN IDEAS L
High Power 2-Phase Synchronous
Boost Replaces Hot Diodes with
Cool FETs—No Heat Sinks Required
by Narayan Raja, Tuan Nguyen and Theo Phillips
Introduction
For low power designs, non-synchronous boost converters offer a simple
solution. However, as power levels increase, the heat dissipated in the boost
diode becomes a signiicant design
problem. In such cases, a synchro-
nous boost converter, with the diode
replaced with a lower forward voltage
drop switch, signiicantly improves eficiency and relieves many issues with
thermal layout. Although the topology
is more complicated, Linear Technol-
ogy offers controller ICs that simplify
the design of high power synchronous
boost applications. The LTC3782A
boost controller, for instance, includes
pre-drive outputs for external synchronous switch drivers. It also integrates
5V
PD3S160
Q1
VCC
1µF
4.7µF
VIN
10V TO 14V
+
SGATE1
TG
1µF
IN
TS
DFLS160
L1
8.3µH
BG1
BG1
Q2
53.6k
1%
Q3
SGATE2
BGATE1
BG1
SGATE1
BGATE2
BG2
0.008Ω
0.008Ω
–
SENSE1
RUN
10Ω
SYNC
GBIAS
DELAY
GBIAS1
DCL
GBIAS2
L2
8.3µH
5V
PD3S160
Q4
SENSE1+
2.2nF
SENSE1–
4.7µF
SENSE1–
SENSE2–
2.2nF
VCC
1µF
BST
VEE1
GND
TG
VEE2
IN
TS
RSET
GND
DFLS160
1µF
LTC4440-5
SLOPE
SGATE2
SENSE2–
SENSE2+
FB
BG2
0.008Ω
0.01µF
0.1µF
220pF
60.4k
Q5
BG2
Q6
SENSE2+
VC
SS
0.008Ω
SENSE2–
15k
6.8nF
51.1k
+
SENSE1+
LT3782A
30.9k
VOUT
24V AT 8A
680µF
SENSE1+
22pF
10µF
s4
475k
1%
825k
VCC1
SGATE2
GND
SGATE1
10µF
s4
680µF
BST
LTC4440-5
316k
10Ω
SENSE2+
Q1–Q6 = HAT2266
Figure 1. Compact high power boost application efficiently produces a 24V/8A output from a 10V–15V input.
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
35
L DESIGN IDEAS
100
97
94
10
VIN = 12V
93
VIN = 24V
92
POWER LOSS
91
90
1
1
Figure 2. Layout of the circuit in Figure 1. Note that no heat sinks are needed,
even at the high power levels produced by this relatively compact circuit.
strong bottom switch drivers for high
gate charge high voltage MOSFETs
and uses a constant frequency, peak
current mode architecture to produce
high output voltages from 6V to 40V
inputs. Its 2-phase architecture keeps
external components small and low
proile.
Synchronous Operation
At high current levels, a boost diode
dissipates a signiicant amount of
power, while a synchronous switch
can burn far less. It all comes down
to the forward voltage drop. The power
dissipated in the boost diode is IIN • VD,
while the power dissipated by the
synchronous switch is I2IN • RDS(ON).
(or IIN • VDS(ON)). A typical sub-10mΩ
MOSFET running 10A dissipates
1W, while the 0.5V drop of a typical
a. Thermal image of the board in Figure 2
built up with synchronous FETs
2
5
3
4
LOAD CURRENT (A)
6
7
Figure 3. Efficiency and power loss of the
circuit in Figure 1 compared to the efficiency
of the circuit when the synchronous FETs are
replaced with non-synchronous boost diodes.
Schottky diode burns a whopping
5W. Because the forward drop of a
synchronous MOSFET is proportional
to the current lowing through it, FETs
can be paralleled to share current and
drastically reduce power dissipation.
On the other hand, paralleling boost
diodes does little to reduce power dissipation as the forward drop through
the diodes holds fairly constant. The
non-synchronous boost diode topology
is more than just ineficient relative
to a synchronous solution—the extra
heat generated in a boost diode must
go somewhere, necessitating a larger
package footprint and heat sinking. At
high power levels, a non-synchronous
boost application becomes larger in
size and higher in cost over a synchronous solution.
COOL FETs
POWER LOSS (W)
VIN = 12V
95
EFFICIENCY (%)
VIN = 24V
EFFICIENCY
96
Multiphase Operation
Reduces Application Size
There are a number of good reasons
to choose a multiphase/multi-channel
DC/DC converter over an equivalent
single-phase solution, including
reduced EMI and improved thermal
performance, but the biggest advantage can be a signiicant reduction in
application size. Although a 2-phase
solution requires more components,
two inductors and two MOSFETs instead of one, it offers a net reduction
in space and cost. This is because the
inductors and MOSFETs are more
than proportionally smaller than those
required in the single-phase solution.
Moreover, because the switching signals are mutually anti-phase, their
output ripples tend to cancel each
continued on page 9
HOT DIODES HEAT UP
THE WHOLE BOARD
b. Thermal image of the board in Figure 2
built up with boost diodes
Figure 4. The board in Figure 2 runs fairly cool (a), but when the synchronous FETs are replaced with boost diodes, the entire board heats up
considerably with the diodes running significantly hotter than the FETs (b). (VIN = 12V, ILOAD = 6A, two minutes after power up.)
36
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN IDEAS L
100V Controller in 3mm × 3mm QFN
or MSE Drives High Power LED Strings
from Just About Any Input by Keith Szolusha
Introduction
Strings of high power solid-state
LEDs are replacing traditional lighting
technologies in large area and high
lumens light sources because of their
high quality light output, unmatched
durability, relatively low lifetime cost,
constant-color dimming and energy eficiency. The list of applications grows
daily, including LCD television backlights and projection system bulbs,
industrial and architectural lighting
systems, automotive headlamps, taillights and indicator lights, computer
monitors, street lights, billboards and
even stadium lights.
As the number of applications expands, so does the complexity of input
requirements for the LED drivers.
LED drivers must be able to handle
wide ranging inputs, including the
harsh transient voltage environment
presented by automotive batteries,
the wide voltage range of the Li-ion
cells and wallwart voltages. For LED
lighting manufacturers and designers, applying a different LED driver
for each application means stocking,
testing and designing with a wide
variety of LED controllers. This can
be an expensive and time-consuming
proposition. It would be far better to
use a controller that can be applied
to many solutions.
The LT3756 high voltage LED driver
features a unique topological versatility that allows it to be used in boost,
buck-boost mode, buck mode, SEPIC,
lyback and other topologies. Its high
power capability provides potentially
hundreds of watts of steady-state LED
power over a very wide input voltage
range. Its 100V loating LED current
sense inputs allow the LED string to
loat above ground, as shown in the
buck mode and buck-boost mode topologies in this article. Excellent PWM
dimming architecture produces high
dimming ratios, up to 3000:1.
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
L1A, B
22µH 2×
VIN = PVIN
40V TO 60V
(LED CURRENT
REDUCED WHEN
VIN < 40V)
2.2µF
100V
×2
499k
SHDN/UVLO
OVP = 95V
FB
VREF
ISP
1M
24.3k
LT3756
0.068Ω
CTRL
Q1A, B
GATE
SENSE
OPENLED
0.018Ω
100k
0.1µF
10k
42.2k
250kHz
1%
ILED
1.5A
ISN
30.9k
INTVCC
2.2µF
100V
×5
1.8M
VIN
23.2k
PDS5100
PWM
SS
RT
VC
83V
LED
STRING
PWMOUT
GND INTVCC
10k
Si7322DN
4.7µF
4700pF
L1 = 2× SERIES SLF12575T-220M4R0
Q1 = 2× PARALLEL Si7322DN
Figure 1. A 125W, 83V at 1.5A, 97% efficient boost LED driver for stadium lighting
A number of features protect the
LEDs and surrounding components.
Shutdown and undervoltage lockout,
when combined with analog dimming
derived from the input, provide the
standard ON/OFF feature as well as
a reduced LED current should the
battery voltage drop to unacceptably
low levels. Analog dimming is accurate and can be combined with PWM
dimming for an extremely wide range
of brightness control. The soft-start
feature prevents spiking inrush currents during start-up. The OPENLED
pin informs of open or missing LEDs
and the SYNC (LT3756-1) pin can be
used to sync switching to an external
clock.
The 16-pin IC is available in a
tiny QFN (3mm × 3mm) and an MSE
package, both thermally enhanced.
For applications with lower input voltage requirements, the 40VIN, 75VOUT
LT3755 LED controller is a similar
option to the LT3756.
Although it is typically used as an
LED driver, the LT3756’s voltage FB
pin provides a well-regulated output
voltage if the constant current sense
voltage is not used. This is a side beneit
of the LT3756’s overvoltage protection
feature, in which the current control
loop is superceded by the FB voltage
loop in the case of an open LED string,
thus preventing the controller from a
running up the voltage in an effort to
maintain current.
125W Boost LED Driver for
Stadium Lights or Billboards
Lighting systems for stadiums, spotlights and billboards require huge
strings of LEDs running at high power.
The LT3756 controller can drive up
to 100V LED strings with its loating
sense resistor inputs ISP and ISN.
The 125W LED driver in Figure 1
accepts a wide-range 40V–60V input
taken from the output of a high power
transformer.
The LT3756’s high power GATE
driver switches two 100V MOSFETs
at 250kHz. This switching frequency
minimizes the size of the discrete components while maintaining high 97%
eficiency, thus producing a less-than37
L DESIGN IDEAS
100
2.2µF
100V
×2
196k
VIN
ISP
SHDN/UVLO
6.2V
30.9k
VREF
0V–12V FOR
0A–1A ILED
120k
0.1Ω
CTRL
51k
LT3756
PWMOUT
0.1µF
10k
69.8k
150kHz
4.7k
80
12.4k
M2
1k
1N4448HWT
90
ISN
FB
9.1k
PWM
147k
ILED
1A
Q1
10µF
16V
PWM
1 OR 2 LEDs
3.5V–7V
0A–1A
M3
OPTIONAL
VLED = 7V
70
VLED = 3.5V
60
50
40
30
20
L1
33µH
10
D1
0
0
OPENLED
M1
SS
GATE
RT
VC
SENSE
GND INTVCC
0.01µF
0.05Ω
4.7µF
100k
D1: DIODES INC B2100
L1: SUMIDA CDRH8D38-330
M1: VISHAY SILICONIX Si4484EY
M2: VISHAY SILICONIX Si2307BDS
M3: VISHAY SILICONIX Si2328DS
Q1: MMBT5401
Figure 2. An 80VIN buck mode LED driver with PWM dimming for single or double LEDs
50°C discrete component temperature
rise—far more manageable than the
potential heat produced by the 83V
string of 1.5A LEDs.
Even if PWM dimming is not
required, the PWMOUT dimming
MOSFET is useful for LED disconnect
during shutdown. This prevents current from running through the string
of ground-connected LEDs—possible
under certain input conditions.
If an LED fails open or if the LED
string is removed from the high power
driver, the FB constant voltage loop
takes over and regulates the output at
95V until a proper string is attached
between LED+ and LED–. Without
overvoltage protection, the LED sense
resistor would see zero LED current
and the control loop would work hard
to increase its output. Eventually, the
output capacitor voltage would go over
100V, exceeding the maximum rating
of several components. While in OVP
the OPENLED status lag goes low.
High Voltage Buck Mode
LED Driver with High
PWM Dimming Ratio
When the input voltage is higher than
the LED string voltage, the LT3756
can serve equally well as a constant
current buck mode converter. For example, an automotive battery’s voltage
can present a wildly moving target,
38
EFFICIENCY (%)
VIN
10V TO
80V
from drooping voltages to dizzyingly
high voltage spikes, The buck mode
LED driver in Figure 2 is perfect for
such harsh environments. It operates
with a wide 10V-to-80V input range
to drive one or two 3.5V LEDs (7V) at
1A. In this case, both the VIN pin and
ISP and ISN current sense inputs can
go as high as 80V.
PWM dimming requires a level-shift
from the PWMOUT pin to the high
side LED string as shown in Figure 2. The maximum PWM dimming
ratio increases with higher switching frequency, lower PWM dimming
frequency, higher input voltage and
lower LED power. In this case, a 100:1
dimming ratio is possible with a 100Hz
dimming frequency, a 48V input, a
3.5V or 7V LED at 1A, and a 150kHz
switching frequency. Although higher
switching frequency is possible with
the LT3756, the duty cycle eventually
has its limits. Generous minimum
on-time and minimum off-time restrictions require a frequency on the lower
end of its range (150kHz) to meet both
the harsh high-VIN-to-low-VLED (80VIN
to one 3.5V LED) and low-VIN-dropout
requirements (10VIN to 7VLED) of this
particular converter.
The overvoltage protection of the
buck mode LED driver has a level
shift as well. Q1, a pnp transistor,
helps regulate the maximum allowable
10
20
30
40 50
VIN (V)
60
70
80
Figure 3. Efficiency for the
buck mode converter in Figure 2
output capacitor voltage to a level just
beyond that of the LED string. Without
the level-shifted OVP network tied to
FB, an open LED string would result
in the output capacitor charging up to
the input voltage. Although the buck
mode components will survive this
scenario, the LEDs may not survive
being plugged back into a potential
equal to the input voltage. That is,
a single 3.5V LED might not survive
being connected directly to 80V.
Single Inductor Buck-Boost
Mode LED Driver
One increasingly common LED driver
requirement is that the ranges of both
the LED string voltage and the input
voltage are wide and overlapping. In
fact, some designers prefer to use the
same LED driver circuit for several
different battery sources and several
different LED string types. Such a
versatile coniguration trades some
eficiency, component cost, and board
space for design simplicity, but the
tradeoffs are usually mitigated by the
signiicantly reduced time-to-market
by producing an essentially off-theshelf multipurpose LED driver.
The buck-boost mode topology
shown in Figure 4 uses a single
inductor and can both step-up and
step-down the input voltage to the LED
string voltage. It accepts inputs from
6V to 36V to drive 10V–50V LED strings
at up to 400mA. The PWM dimming
and OVP are level-shifted in a manner
similar to the buck mode for optimal
performance of these features.
The inductor current is the sum of
the input current and the LED string
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN IDEAS L
10V–50V
LED–
LED+
100
VIN
9V TO 36V
(6V UVLO)
ILED
400mA
D1
2.2µF
50V
s2
110k
0.025Ω
VIN
3906
4.7k
499k
VIN
GATE SENSE
FB
SHDN/UVLO
1M
VLED = 10V
80
COUT
2.2µF
100V
s2
M1
VLED = 50V
90
0.25Ω
2.49k
EFFICIENCY (%)
L1
22µH
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
130k
10
15
LT3756
PWMOUT
CTRL
140k
4.7µF
INTVCC
VREF
SS
ISN
GND
VC
0.1µF
10k
5.1k
Conclusion
RT
28.7k
400kHz
M1: VISHAY SILICONIX Si7454DP
D1: DIODES INC. PDS3100
L1: SUMIDA CDRH127-220
4700pF
Figure 4. A buck-boost mode LED driver with wide-ranging VIN and VLED
current; the peak inductor current
is also equal to the peak switching
current—higher than either a buck
mode or boost topology LED driver
with similar specs due to the nature
of the hookup. The 4A peak switch
current and inductor rating relects
the worst-case 9V input to 50V LED
string at 400mA.
Below 9V input, the CTRL analog
dimming input pin is used to scale back
the LED current to keep the inductor
current under control if the battery
voltage drops too low. The LEDs turn
off below 6V input due to undervoltage
lockout and will not turn back on until
the input rises above 7V, to prevent
lickering. In buck-boost mode, the
output voltage is the sum of the input
voltage and the LED string voltage. The
output capacitor, the catch diode, and
LT782A, continued from page 6
to level shift the SGATE signals and
drive the synchronous MOSFETs. The
250kHz switching frequency optimizes
eficiency and component size/board
area. Figure 2 shows the layout. Proper
routing and iltering of the sense pins,
placement of the power components
and isolation using ground and supply planes ensure an almost jitter free
operation, even at 50% duty cycle.
Figure 3 shows the eficiency of the
circuit in Figure 1 with synchronous
MOSFETs (measured to 8A) and the
eficiency of an equivalent non-synchronous circuit using boost diodes
(measured to 6A). The 1% improvement
in peak eficiency may not seem signiicant, but take a look at the difference
other out, thus reducing the total
output ripple by 50%, which in turn
reduces output capacitance requirements. The input current ripple is also
halved, which reduces the required
input capacitance and reduces EMI.
Finally, the power dissipated as heat is
spread out over two phases, reducing
the size of heat sinks or eliminating
them altogether.
24V at 8A from
a 10V–15V Input
Figure 1 shows a high power boost
application that eficiently produces a
24V/8A output from a 10V–15V input.
The LTC4440 high side driver is used
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
30
the power MOSFET can see voltages
as high as 90V for this design.
ISP
OPENLED
25
Figure 5. Efficiency for the buck-boost
mode converter in Figure 4
PWM
100k
20
VIN (V)
The 100V LT3756 controller is ostensibly a high power LED driver, but its
architecture is so versatile, it can be
used in any number of high voltage
input applications. Of course, it has
all the features required for large (and
small) strings of high power LEDs.
It can be used in boost, buck-boost
mode, buck mode, SEPIC and lyback
topologies. Its high voltage rating, optimized LED driver architecture, high
performance PWM dimming, host of
protection features and accurate high
side current sensing make the LT3756
a single-IC choice for a variety of high
voltage input and high power lighting
systems. L
in heat dissipation shown in Figure 4,
which shows thermal images of both
circuits under equivalent operating
conditions. The thermal advantages
of using synchronous switches are
clear.
Conclusion
The 2-phase synchronous boost
topology possible with the LT3782A
offers several advantages over a nonsynchronous or a single-phase boost
topology. Its combination of high eficiency, small footprint, heat sink-free
thermal characteristics and low input/output capacitance requirements
make it an easy it in automotive and
industrial applications. L
39
L DESIGN IDEAS
Parallel Buck-Boost µModule
Regulators to Produce High Current
in Sub-2.8mm Height Applications
by Judy Sun, Sam Young and Henry Zhang
Introduction
For applications requiring DC/DC converters to regulate an output voltage
that is somewhere in the middle of an
input voltage range, circuit designers
are always troubled by the complexity and/or low eficiency of available
converter topologies, such as SEPIC,
lyback or forward converters. As an
alternative, Linear Technology offers
a number of 4-switch synchronous
buck-boost regulator/controller ICs
that signiicantly improve eficiency
and save space over other buck-boost
topologies—even as they simplify
design and produce higher power densities. Linear Technology µModules
further simplify design by integrating
A big advantage of µModule
regulators is that they
can be easily paralleled
to increase output power
capability. The current mode
control scheme ensures
balanced current sharing
among the paralleled
µModule regulators at both
steady state and transient
conditions, whether running
in buck, boost,
or buck-boost mode.
most of the discrete components into
a single package. For instance, the
LTM4605 and LTM4607 buck-boost
µModules fit almost all required
components into a 15mm × 15mm
× 2.8mm surface mount package,
requiring only an external inductor,
a current sensing resistor, a voltage
setting resistor and a few input and
output capacitors. µModule solutions
also offer exceptional thermal performance, further simplifying already
simple layout.
Another big advantage of µModule
regulators is that they can be easily paralleled to increase output
power capability. The current mode
VIN
5V TO 20V
CLOCK SYNC 0° PHASE
10µF
35V
R5
100k
PGOOD VIN
PLLIN V
OUT
RUN
FCB
LTM4605
COMP
C1
0.1µF
R4
324k
V+
OUT1
GND
OUT2
SET
5.1V
SW2
PLLFLTR
RSENSE
EXTVCC
SENSE+
STBYMD
SENSE–
SS
C3
0.1µF
MOD
SGND
180µF
16V
×2
VOUT
12V
10A
SW1
INTVCC
LTC6908-1
22µF
×2
L1
3.3µH
+
PGND
R2
7mΩ
VFB
RFB
3.57k
2-PHASE OSCILLATOR
CLOCK SYNC 180° PHASE
10µF
35V
PGOOD VIN
PLLIN V
OUT
FCB
RUN
LTM4605
COMP
22µF
x2
+
180µF
16V
×2
SW1
INTVCC
SW2
PLLFLTR
RSENSE
EXTVCC
SENSE+
STBYMD
SENSE–
SS
SGND
L2
3.3µH
PGND
R3
7mΩ
VFB
Figure 1. Paralleling two LTM4605s for high output current
40
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN IDEAS L
Paralleling the µModule buck-boost
regulators is simple: just tie their VIN,
VOUT, COMP, VFB, RUN and SS pins
together, as shown in Figure 1. The
LTC6908-1 oscillator synchronizes the
two paralleled modules so that they
operate with a 180° phase difference.
Interleaving the power output in this
way effectively cancels input and output ripple, thus minimizing required
input and output capacitance.
This circuit in Figure 1 accepts
a 5V to 20V input, and generates a
12V output. The rated output current is 10A for boost mode and 20A
for buck mode. Figure 2 shows the
eficiency curves at a 300kHz switch-
95
90
65
0
6
4
2
0
5
10
15
LOAD CURRENT (A)
20
Figure 2. High efficiency from the parallel
LTM4605s in Figure 1 (CCM mode)
ing frequency. The paralleled modules
achieve about 95% eficiency in boost
mode and more than 97% eficiency
in buck-boost and buck mode, over a
wide load range.
Because the inductor currents are
sensed and controlled by the same
COMP pin voltage, the current sharing is naturally guaranteed among
paralleled µModules. It does not matter if the system is running in buck
mode, buck-boost mode or boost
INDUCTOR CURRENT (A)
INDUCTOR CURRENT (A)
IL1
VIN = 18V
VIN = 12V
VIN = 6V
70
10
8
80
75
12
IL2
85
10
10
IL1
8
IL2
6
4
2
4
6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
LOAD CURRENT (A)
8
6
4
IL2
IL1
2
0
VIN = 12V
–2
2
Need more output current than two
LTM4605s can handle? In that case,
just parallel more µModule regulators.
12
0
0
Parallel Four for 12V at
20A in Boost Mode,
40A in Buck Mode
12
VIN = 18V
–2
mode, DC current sharing is excellent
throughout. Figure 3 demonstrates
well-balanced inductor currents for
the two paralleled LTM4605s in all
three operation modes.
Thanks to the high eficiencies and
well-balanced output currents, the
thermal stress is evenly distributed
between the two LTM4605s and two
inductors, ensuring high system
reliability. Figure 4 shows thermal pictures of the two paralleled LTM4605s,
where the inductors are mounted
above the LTM4605 µModules. The
temperature rises of the two LTM4605s
and two inductors are very similar in
all three cases with VIN at 18V, 12V
and 6V. Even without forced air low,
the maximum temperature rise is
only 45oC.
INDUCTOR CURRENT (A)
Parallel Two LTM4605
µModule Regulators for
12V at 10A in Boost Mode,
20A in Buck Mode
100
EFFICIENCY (%)
control scheme ensures balanced
current sharing among the paralleled
µModules at both steady state and
transient conditions, whether running
in buck, boost, or buck-boost mode.
VIN = 6V
–2
0
2
4
6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
LOAD CURRENT (A)
0
2
4
6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
LOAD CURRENT (A)
Figure 3. Balanced inductor currents for two paralleled LTM4605s in different operating modes
VIN = 18V
IOUT = 20A
VIN = 12V
IOUT = 10A
VIN = 6V
IOUT = 10A
Figure 4. Thermal stress is evenly distributed between the two LTM4605s and
two inductors for the circuit in Figure 1 (shown here with no air flow or heat sink).
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
41
L DESIGN IDEAS
100
95
EFFICIENCY (%)
90
85
80
75
VIN = 18V
VIN = 12V
VIN = 6V
70
65
0
10
20
30
LOAD CURRENT (A)
40
Figure 6. The tested efficiency for
the four LTM4605s paralleled in
Figure 5 (CCM mode)
Figure 5. Simple layout of four LTM4605 µModule regulators in parallel: top and bottom sides
of the board (additional input and output bulk caps are placed on the top and bottom).
is equally shared among the four
inductors because of the internal
current mode control scheme. High
eficiency and well-balanced currents
lead to excellent thermal performance,
which allows this 240W system to it
tight spaces.
For example, simply connect the VIN,
VOUT, COMP, VFB, RUN and SS pins of
four LTM4605s in parallel to produce
20A in boost mode and more in buck
mode. The LTM4605 or LTM4607
µModule is internally compensated
so that it is stable in any parallel
system.
Figure 5 shows the layout of four
paralleled LTM4605s. This simple
design delivers 240W of output power
with a high power density and low
proile. The input range is 5V to 20V,
producing a 12V output. It is capable
of supporting 20A loads in boost mode
and up to 40A in buck mode. A 4-phase
oscillator synchronizes the µModule
regulators with 90° phase interleaving. This effectively cancels input and
output ripple. Figure 6 shows that
eficiency is better than 95% in boost
mode and up to 97% in buck mode,
over a wide output current range.
Figure 7 shows the thermal performance for the four paralleled
LTM4605s running at full load at
three different input voltages. Load
current, and thus power dissipation,
The LTM4605 and LTM4607 buckboost µModule regulators are ideal for
the applications where the output voltage is within the input voltage range.
In addition, these integrated µModules
can be easily paralleled to provide
more power. Outstanding current
sharing performance is ensured by the
internal current mode control scheme,
whether the µModules are running
in buck, buck-boost or boost mode.
With minimum circuit and PCB layout
design effort, the paralleled LTM4605
and LTM4607 µModules provide high
output power, high eficiency, and
high reliability in an extraordinarily
compact form factor. L
VIN = 18V
IOUT = 40A
VIN = 12V
IOUT = 20A
VIN = 6V
IOUT = 20A
The LTM4605 and LTM4607
buck-boost µModule
regulators are ideal for
the applications where the
output voltage is within the
input voltage range.
Conclusion
Figure 7. Thermal performance of the four LTM4605s paralleled in Figure 5 at 240W with no air flow or heat sink
42
Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009
DESIGN TOOLS L
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Linear Technology Magazine • January 2009