As the performance of many handheld devices approachesthat of laptop computers, design complexity also increases.Chief among them is thermal management—how doyou meet increasing performance demands while keepinga compact and small product cool in the user’s hand?For instance, as battery capacities inevitably increase,charge currents will also increase to maintain or improvetheir charge times. Traditional linear regulator-based batterychargers will not be able to meet the charge currentand effi ciency demands necessary to allow a product torun cool. What is needed is a switching-based chargerthat takes just about the same amount of space as a linearsolution—but without the heat.
The power appetite of large TFT-LCDs appears to beinsatiable. Power supplies must feed increasing numbersof transistors and improved display resolutions, and doso without taking much space.
Piezoelectric motors are used in digital cameras for autofocus,zooming and optical image stabilization. Theyare relatively small, lightweight and effi cient, but theyalso require a complicated driving scheme. Traditionally,this challenge has been met with the use ofseparatecircuits, including a step-up converter and an oversizedgeneric full-bridge drive IC. The resulting high componentcount and large board space are especially problematicin the design of cameras for ever shrinking cell phones.The LT®3572 solves these problems by combining astep-up regulator and a dual full-bridge driver in a 4mm× 4mm QFN package. Figure 1 shows a typical LT3572Piezo motor drive circuit. A step-up converter is usedto generate 30V from a low voltage power source suchas a Li-Ion battery or any input power source within thepart’s wide input voltage range of 2.7V to 10V. The highoutput voltage of the step-up converter, adjustable upto 40V, is available for the drivers at the VOUT pin. Thedrivers operate in a full-bridge fashion, where the OUTAand OUTB pins are the same polarity as the PWMA andPWMB pins, respectively, and the OUTA and OUTB pinsare inverted from PWMA and PWMB, respectively. Thestep-up converter and both Piezo drivers have their ownshutdown control. Figure 2 shows a typical layout
Avalanche photo diode (APD) receiver modules arewidely used in fi ber optic communication systems. AnAPD module contains the APD and a signal conditioningamplifi er, but is not completely self contained. It stillrequires signifi cant support circuitry including a highvoltage, low noise power supply and a precision currentmonitor to indicate the signal strength. The challenge issqueezing this support circuitry into applications withlimited board space. The LT®3482 addresses this challengeby integrating a monolithic DC/DC step-up converter andan accurate current monitor. The LT3482 can supportup to a 90V APD bias voltage, and the current monitorprovides better than 10% accuracy over four decades ofdynamic range (250nA to 2.5mA).
Today’s computer, datacom, and telecom systems demandpower supplies that are effi cient, respond quicklyto load transients and accurately regulate the voltageat the load. For example, load current can be measuredby using the inductor DCR, thus eliminating the needfor a dedicated sense resistor. Inductor DCR sensingincreases effi ciency—especially at heavy load—whilereducing component cost and required board space.The LTC®3856 single-output 2-phase synchronous buckcontroller improves the accuracy of inductor DCR sensingby compensating for changes in DCR due to temperature.
As environmental concerns over traditional lighting increaseand the price of LEDs decreases, high power LEDsare fast becoming a popular lighting solution for offl ineapplications. In order to meet the requirements of offl inelighting—such as high power factor, high effi ciency, isolationand TRIAC dimmer compatibility—prior LED driversused many external discrete components, resulting incumbersome solutions. The LT®3799 solves complexity,space and performance problems by integrating all therequired functions for offl ine LED lighting.
Abstract: This article discusses future trends in the design of smartphones and other consumer products. The discussion focuses onthe importance of integration, which saves valuable PCB space and drives down costs.
Portable, battery-powered operation of electronic apparatushas become increasingly desirable. Medical, remotedata acquisition, power monitoring and other applicationsare good candidates for batteryoperation. In some circumstances,due to space, power or reliability considerations,it is preferable to operate the circuitry from a single 1.5Vcell. Unfortunately, a 1.5V supply eliminates almost alllinear ICs as design candidates. In fact, the LM10 opamp-reference and the LT®1017/LT1018 comparators arethe only IC gain blocks fully specifi ed for 1.5V operation.Further complications are presented by the 600mV dropof silicon transistors and diodes. This limitation consumesa substantial portion of available supply range, makingcircuit design diffi cult. Additionally, any circuit designedfor 1.5V operation mustfunction at end-of-life batteryvoltage, typically 1.3V. (See Box Section, “Componentsfor 1.5V Operation.”)
The latest generation of Texas Instruments (TI) boardmountedpower modules utilizes a pin interconnect technologythat improves surface-mount manufacturability.These modules are produced as a double-sided surfacemount(DSSMT) subassembly, yielding a case-less constructionwith subcomponents located on both sides of theprinted circuit board (PCB). Products produced in theDSSMT outline use the latest high-efficiency topologiesand magnetic-component packaging. This providescustomers with a high-efficiency, ready-to-use switchingpower module in a compact, space-saving package. Bothnonisolated point-of-load (POL) switching regulators andthe isolated dc/dc converter modules are being producedin the DSSMT outline.TI’s plug-in power product line offers power modules inboth through-hole and surface-mount packages. The surfacemountmodules produced in the DSSMT outline use asolid copper interconnect with an integral solder ball fortheir
The P89LPC912/913/914 are single-chip microcontrollers in low-cost 14-pin packages, based on a high performance processor architecture that executes instructions in two to four clocks, six times the rate of standard 80C51 devices. Many system level functions have been incorporated into the P89LPC912/913/914 in order to reduce component count, board space, and system cost.
