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Setting the Output Voltage and Selecting the Feed-forward Capacitor (Boost Converter)
Vout + 1.146 V
1 )
R1
R2
(4)
C8 +
1
2
p
z
R1
+
1
2
p
10000
R1
(5)
Compensation (COMP)
z +
1
2
p
C12
R6
(6)
Gate Drive Pin (GD) and Isolation Switch Selection
Step-Down Converter
SLVS760C – APRIL 2007 – REVISED MARCH 2008
The output voltage is set by the external resistor divider and is calculated as:
Across the upper resistor a bypass capacitor is required to speed up the circuit during load transients. The
capacitor is calculated as:
A value coming closest to the calculated value should be used.
The regulator loop can be compensated by adjusting the external components connected to the COMP pin. The
COMP pin is the output of the internal transconductance error amplifier. A single capacitor connected to this pin
sets the low frequency gain. A 22-nF capacitor is sufficient for most of the applications. Adding a series resistor
sets an additional zero and increases the high frequency gain. The formula below calculates at what frequency
the resistor will increase the high frequency gain.
Lower input voltages require a higher gain and; therefore, a lower compensation capacitor value. See the typical
applications for the appropriate component selection.
The external isolation switch disconnects the output of the boost converter once the device is turned off. The
external isolation switch also provides a short-circuit protection of Vs by turning off the switch in case of a
short-circuit. The Gate Drive (GD) allows control of an external isolation MOSFET switch. GD pin is pulled low
when the input voltage is above the undervoltage lockout threshold (UVLO) and when enable (EN) is high. The
gate drive has an internal pull up resistor to AVIN of typically 5 k
. In order to minimize inrush current during
start-up, the gate drive pin is pulled low by an internal 10
A current sink. To further reduce this inrush current,
typically a 1-nF capacitor can be connected from pin GD to the boost converter inductor. A standard P-Channel
MOSFET with a current rating close to the minimum boost converter switch current limit of 3.5 A is sufficient.
Table 7 shows two examples coming in a small SOT23 package. The worst case power dissipation of the
isolation switch is calculated as the minimum switch current limit
× R
DS(on) of the MOSFET. A standard SOT23
package or similar is able to provide sufficient power dissipation.
Table 7. Isolation Switch Selection
COMPONENT SUPPLIER
CURRENT RATING
International Rectifier IRLML5203
3 A
Siliconix SI2343
3.1 A
The non-synchronous step-down converter operates at a fixed switching frequency using a fast response voltage
mode topology withfeed-forward input voltage. This topology allows simple internal compensation and it is
designed to operate with ceramic output capacitors. The converter drives an internal 2.8-A N-Channel MOSFET
switch. The MOSFET driver is referenced to the switch pin SWB. The N-Channel MOSFET requires a gate drive
voltage higher than the switch pin to turn the N-Channel MOSFET on. This is accomplished by a boost strap gate
drive circuit running of the step-down converter switch pin. When the switch pin SWB is at ground, the boot strap
capacitor is charged to 8 V. This way the N-Channel Gate drive voltage is typically around 8 V.
Copyright 2007–2008, Texas Instruments Incorporated
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