Traditionally, an Electronic Circuit Breaker (ECB) comprisesa MOSFET, a MOSFET controller and a current senseresistor. The LTC®4213 does away with the sense resistorby using the RDS(ON) of the external MOSFET. The resultis a simple, small solution that offers a signifi cant lowinsertion loss advantage at low operating load voltage.The LTC4213 features two circuit breaking responses tovarying overload conditions with three selectable tripthresholds and a high side drive for an external N-channelMOSFET switch.
Speed and accuracy don’t always go hand-in-handin DC/DC converter systems—that is, until now. TheLTC3811 is a dual output, fi xed frequency current modeDC/DC switching regulator controller designed for one oftoday’s most demanding power supply applications: highcurrent, low voltage processor core supplies.
Typical industrial and automotive applications requiremultiple high current, low voltage power supply solutionsto drive everything from disc drives to microprocessors.For many of these applications, particularly thosethat have size constraints, the LT3501® dual step-downconverter is an attractive solution because it’s compactand inexpensive compared to a 2-chip solution. The dualconverter accommodates a 3V to 25V input voltage rangeand is capable of supplying up to 3A per channel. Thecircuit in Figure 1 produces 3.3V and 1.8V.
The LTC®3569 is a compact power solution for handhelddevices. Its tiny 3mm × 3mm QFN package includesthree buck regulators with individually programmableoutput voltages. One regulator supports load currentsup to 1200mA, while the other two support currents to600mA. Two regulators can be paralleled for increasedload capability. Each current-mode regulator is internallycompensated with excellent load and line regulation. Acomplete 2- or 3-output solution requires a minimumof external passive components.
Industrial remote monitoring systems and keep-alivecircuits spend most of their time in standby mode. Manyof these systems also depend on battery power, so powersupply effi ciency in standby state is very important tomaximize battery life. The LT®8410/-1 high effi ciencyboost converter is ideal for these systems, requiringonly 8.5μA of quiescent current in standby mode. Thedevice integrates high value (12.4M/0.4M) output feedbackresistors, signifi cantly reducing input current whenthe output is in regulation with no load. Other featuresinclude an integrated 40V switch and Schottky diode,output disconnect with current limit, built in soft-start,overvoltage protection and a wide input range, all in atiny 8-pin 2mm × 2mm DFN package.
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).
The LTC3546 is a dual output current mode buck regulatorwith fl exible output current partitioning. Beyondthe advantages normally associated with dual outputregulators (reduced size, cost, EMI and part count, withimproved effi ciency), the LTC3546’s outputs can bepartitioned for either 3A and 1A outputs, or two 2A outputs.This increases its application range and simplifi esmultiple supply rail designs. A confi gurable Burst Mode®clamp for each output sets the current transition levelbetween Burst Mode operation and forced continuousconduction mode to optimize effi ciency over the entireoutput range. An adjustable switching frequency up to4MHz and internal power MOSFET switches allow forsmall and compact footprints.
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.
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.
The LTC®4151 is a high side power monitor that includesa 12-bit ADC for measuring current and voltage, as wellas the voltage on an auxiliary input. Data is read throughthe widely used I2C interface. An unusual feature in thisdevice is its 7V to 80V operating range, allowing it to coverapplications from 12V automotive to 48V telecom.
