LTC1143 View Datasheet(PDF) - Linear Technology

Part Name

Description

Manufacturer

LTC1143

Dual High Efficiency SO-16 Step-Down Switching Regulator Controllers

Linear Technology 

LTC1143/LTC1143L

LTC1143L-ADJ

APPLICATIONS INFORMATION

drawn from VIN, the resulting loss increases with

input voltage. For VIN = 10V the DC bias losses are

generally less than 1% for load currents over 30mA.

However at very low load currents the DC bias current

accounts for nearly all of the loss.

2) MOSFET gate charge current results from switching

the gate capacitance of the power MOSFET. Each time

a MOSFET gate is switched from low to high to low again,

a packet of charge dQ moves from VIN to ground. The

resulting dQ/dt is a current out of VIN that is typically

much larger than the DC supply current. In continuous

mode, IGATECHG = ƒ(QP). The typical gate charge for

a 0.05Ω P-channel power MOSFET is 40nC. This

results in IGATECHG = 4mA in 100kHz continuous opera-

tion, for a 2% to 3% typical midcurrent loss with

VIN = 10V.

Note that the gate charge loss increases directly with

both input voltage and operating frequency. This is the

principal reason why the highest efficiency circuits

operate at moderate frequencies. Furthermore, it

argues against using a larger MOSFET than necessary

to control I2R losses, since overkill can cost efficiency

as well as money!

3) I2R losses are easily predicted from the DC resistances

of the MOSFET, inductor and current shunt. In continuous

mode the average output current flows through L and

RSENSE, but is “chopped” between the P-channel

MOSFET and Schottky diode. The MOSFET RDS(ON) multi-

plied by the P-channel duty cycle can be summed with

the resistances of L and RSENSE to obtain I2R losses.

For example, if the RDS(ON) = 0.1Ω, RL = 0.15Ω, and

RSENSE = 0.05Ω, then the total resistance is 0.3Ω. This

results in losses ranging from 3% to 10% as the output

current increases from 0.5A to 2A. I2R losses cause the

efficiency to roll off at high output currents.

4) The Schottky diode is a major source of power loss at

high currents and gets worse at high input voltages.

The diode loss is calculated by multiplying the forward

voltage drop times the Schottky diode duty cycle

multiplied by the load current. For example, assuming

a duty cycle of 50% with a Schottky diode forward

voltage drop of 0.4V, the loss increases from 0.5% to

8% as the load current increases from 0.5A to 2A. If

Schotky diode losses routinely exceed 5% consider

using the synchronously switched LTC1142 series.

Figure 5 shows how the efficiency losses in one section of

a typical LTC1143 series regulator end up being appor-

tioned. The gate charge loss is responsible for the majority

of the efficiency lost in the midcurrent region. If Burst

Mode operation was not employed at low currents, the

gate charge loss alone would cause efficiency to drop to

unacceptable levels. With Burst Mode operation, the DC

supply current represents the lone (and unavoidable) loss

component, which continues to become a higher percent-

age as output current is reduced. As expected, the I2R

losses and Schottky diode loss dominate at high load

currents.

Other losses including CIN and COUT ESR dissipative

losses, MOSFET switching losses and inductor core losses,

generally account for less than 2% total additional loss.

100

GATE CHARGE

95

1⁄2 LTC1143 IQ

90

I2R

SCHOTTKY

DIODE

85

80

0.01

0.03 0.1 0.3

1

3

OUTPUT CURRENT (A)

LTC1143 • F05

Figure 5. Efficiency Loss

Shutdown Considerations

Pins 2 and 10 on the LTC1143 and LTC1143L shut down

their respective sections when pulled high. They require

CMOS logic level signals with tr, tf < 1µs and must never

be floated. The LTC1143L-ADJ gives up the pin-controlled

shutdown function in order to gain feedback pins for

programming the output voltages.

13

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