Abstract: A resistive feedback network is often used to set the output voltage of a power supply. A mechanical potentiometer (pot)conveniently solves the problem of adjusting a power supply. For easier automatic calibration, a mechanical pot can be replaced witha digital pot. This application note presents a calibration solution that uses a digital pot, because digipots are smaller, do not movewith age or vibration, and can be recalibrated remotely. This proposed solution reduces the susceptibility of the system to thetolerance of the digital pot's end-to-end resistance, making the solution optimal fordesigners. This application note also explainssome of the equations required to calculate the resistor chain values and to use a digital pot in this way. A spreadsheet withstandard reisistor values is available for easy calculations.
Abstract: Rail splitting is creating an artificial virtual ground as a reference voltage. It is used to set the signalto match the op amp's "sweet spot." An op amp has the most linear- and distortion-free qualities at that sweetspot. Typically, the sweet spot occurs near the center between the single power rail and ground. In the case ofa number of signals, the virtual ground can control channel DC errors when multiplexing or switching thesignals.
Easy-to-use and compact point-of-load power suppliesare necessary in systems with widely distributed, highcurrent, low voltage loads. The LTC®3415 provides acompact, simple and versatile solution. It includes a pairof integrated complementary power MOSFETs (32mΩtop and 25mΩ bottom) and requires no external senseresistor. A complete design requires an inductor andinput/output capacitors, and that’s it. The result is a fast,constant frequency, 7A current mode DC/DC switchingregulator.
The LTC®3610 is a high power monolithic synchronousstep-down DC/DC regulator that can deliver up to 12Aof continuous output current from a 4V to 24V (28Vmaximum) input supply. It is a member of a high currentmonolithic regulator family (see Table 1) that featuresintegrated low RDS(ON) N-channel top and bottomMOSFETs. This results in a high effi ciency and highpower density solution with few external components.This regulator family uses a constant on-time valleycurrent mode architecture that is capable of operatingat very low duty cycles at high frequency and with veryfast transient response. All are available in low profi le(0.9mm max) QFN packages.