10
LTC1709-8/LTC1709-9
OPERATIO
U
(Refer to Functional Diagram)
Main Control Loop
The LTC1709 uses a constant frequency, current mode
step-down architecture with inherent current sharing.
During normal operation, the top MOSFET is turned on
each cycle when the oscillator sets the RS latch, and
turned off when the main current comparator, I
1
, resets
the RS latch. The peak inductor current at which I
1
resets
the RS latch is controlled by the voltage on the I
TH
pin,
which is the output of the error amplifier EA. The differen-
tial amplifier, A1, produces a signal equal to the differen-
tial voltage sensed across the output capacitor but
re-references it to the internal signal ground (SGND)
reference. The EAIN pin receives a portion of this voltage
feedback signal at the DIFFOUT as determined by VID
logic input pins (VID0 to VID4) and is compared to the
internal reference voltage by the EA. When the load
current increases, it causes a slight decrease in the EAIN
pin voltage
relative to the 0.8V reference, which in turn
causes the I
TH
voltage to increase until the average
inductor current matches the new load current. After the
top MOSFET has turned off, the bottom MOSFET is turned
on for the rest of the period.
The top MOSFET drivers are biased from floating boot-
strap capacitor C
B
, which normally is recharged during
each off cycle through an external Schottky diode. When
V
IN
decreases to a voltage close to V
OUT
, however, the loop
may enter dropout and attempt to turn on the top MOSFET
continuously. A dropout detector detects this condition
and forces the top MOSFET to turn off for about 400ns
every 10th cycle to recharge the bootstrap capacitor, C
B
.
The main control loop is shut down by pulling Pin 1 (RUN/
SS) low. Releasing RUN/SS allows an internal 1.2µA
current source to charge soft-start capacitor C
SS
. When
C
SS
reaches 1.5V, the main control loop is enabled with
the I
TH
voltage clamped at approximately 30% of its
maximum value. As C
SS
continues to charge, I
TH
is
gradually released allowing normal operation to resume.
When the RUN/SS pin is low, all LTC1709 functions are
shut down. If V
OUT
has not reached 70% of its nominal
value when C
SS
has charged to 4.1V, an overcurrent
latchoff can be invoked as described in the Applications
Information section.
Low Current Operation
The LTC1709 operates in a continuous, PWM control
mode. The resulting operation at low output currents
optimizes transient response at the expense of substantial
negative inductor current during the latter part of the
period. The level of ripple current is determined by the
inductor value, input voltage, output voltage and fre-
quency of operation.
Frequency Synchronization
The phase-locked loop allows the internal oscillator to be
synchronized to an external source via the PLLIN pin. The
output of the phase detector at the PLLFLTR pin is also the
DC frequency control input of the oscillator that operates
over a 140kHz to 310kHz range corresponding to a DC
voltage input from 0V to 2.4V. When locked, the PLL aligns
the turn on of the top MOSFET to the rising edge of the
synchronizing signal. When PLLIN is left open, the PLLFLTR
pin goes low, forcing the oscillator to minimum frequency.
Input capacitance ESR requirements and efficiency losses
are substantially reduced because the peak current drawn
from the input capacitor is effectively divided by two and
power loss is proportional to the RMS current squared. A
two stage, single output voltage implementation can
reduce input path power loss by 75% and radically reduce
the required RMS current rating of the input capacitor(s).
INTV
CC
/EXTV
CC
Power
Power for the top and bottom MOSFET drivers and most
of the IC circuitry is derived from INTV
CC
. When the
EXTV
CC
pin is left open, an internal 5V low dropout
regulator supplies INTV
CC
power. If the EXTV
CC
pin is
taken above 4.7V, the 5V regulator is turned off and an
internal switch is turned on connecting EXTV
CC
to INTV
CC
.
This allows the INTV
CC
power to be derived from a high
efficiency external source such as the output of the regu-
lator itself or a secondary winding, as described in the
Applications Information section. An external Schottky
diode can be used to minimize the voltage drop from
EXTV
CC
to INTV
CC
in applications requiring greater than
the specified INTV
CC
current.
Voltages up to 7V can be
applied to EXTV
CC
for additional gate drive capability.
11
LTC1709-8/LTC1709-9
OPERATIO
U
(Refer to Functional Diagram)
Differential Amplifier
This amplifier provides true differential output voltage
sensing. Sensing both V
OUT
+
and V
OUT
benefits regula-
tion in high current applications and/or applications hav-
ing electrical interconnection losses. The AMPMD pin
allows selection of internal, precision feedback resistors
for high common mode rejection differencing applica-
tions, or direct access to the actual amplifier inputs
without these internal feedback resistors for other applica-
tions. The AMPMD pin is grounded to connect the internal
precision resistors in a unity-gain differencing application,
or tied to the INTV
CC
pin to bypass the internal resistors
and make the amplifier inputs directly available. The
amplifier is a unity-gain stable, 2MHz gain bandwidth,
>120dB open-loop gain design. The amplifier has an
output slew rate of 5V/µs and is capable of driving capaci-
tive loads with an output RMS current typically up to
35mA. The amplifier is not capable of sinking current and
therefore must be resistively loaded to do so.
Power Good (PGOOD)
The PGOOD pin is connected to the drain of an internal
MOSFET. The MOSFET turns on when the output voltage
is not within ±7.5% of its nominal output level as deter-
mined by the feedback divider. When the output is within
±7.5% of its nominal value, the MOSFET is turned off
within 10µs and the PGOOD pin should be pulled up by an
external resistor to a source of up to 7V.
Short-Circuit Detection
The RUN/SS capacitor is used initially to limit the inrush
current from the input power source. Once the controllers
have been given time, as determined by the capacitor on
the RUN/SS pin, to charge up the output capacitors and
provide full-load current, the RUN/SS capacitor is then
used as a short-circuit timeout circuit. If the output voltage
falls to less than 70% of its nominal output voltage the
RUN/SS capacitor begins discharging assuming that the
output is in a severe overcurrent and/or short-circuit
condition. If the condition lasts for a long enough period
as determined by the size of the RUN/SS capacitor, the
controller will be shut down until the RUN/SS pin voltage
is recycled. This built-in latchoff can be overidden by
providing a current >5µA at a compliance of 5V to the
RUN/SS pin. This current shortens the soft-start period
but also prevents net discharge of the RUN/SS capacitor
during a severe overcurrent and/or short-circuit condi-
tion. Foldback current limiting is activated when the output
voltage falls below 70% of its nominal level whether or not
the short-circuit latchoff circuit is enabled.
APPLICATIO S I FOR ATIO
WUU
U
The basic LTC1709 application circuit is shown in Fig-
ure␣ 1 on the first page. External component selection
begins with the selection of the inductor(s) based on
ripple current requirements and continues with the
R
SENSE1, 2
resistor selection using the calculated peak
inductor current and/or maximum current limit. Next, the
power MOSFETs and D1 and D2 are selected. The oper-
ating frequency and the inductor are chosen based mainly
on the amount of ripple current. Finally, C
IN
is selected for
its ability to handle the input ripple current (that
PolyPhase
TM
operation minimizes) and C
OUT
is chosen
with low enough ESR to meet the output ripple voltage
and load step specifications (also minimized with
PolyPhase). Current mode architecture provides inherent
current sharing between output stages. The circuit shown
in Figure␣ 1 can be configured for operation up to an input
voltage of 28V (limited by the external MOSFETs).
R
SENSE
Selection For Output Current
R
SENSE1, 2
are chosen based on the required peak output
current. The LTC1709 current comparator has a maxi-
mum threshold of 75mV/R
SENSE
and an input common
mode range of SGND to 1.1(INTV
CC
). The current com-
parator threshold sets the peak inductor current, yielding
a maximum average output current I
MAX
equal to the peak
value less half the peak-to-peak ripple current, I
L
.
PolyPhase is a trademark of Linear Technology Corporation.
12
LTC1709-8/LTC1709-9
APPLICATIO S I FOR ATIO
WUU
U
Allowing a margin for variations in the LTC1709 and
external component values yields:
R
SENSE
= 2(50mV/I
MAX
)
Operating Frequency
The LTC1709 uses a constant frequency, phase-lockable
architecture with the frequency determined by an internal
capacitor. This capacitor is charged by a fixed current
plus an additional current which is proportional to the
voltage applied to the PLLFLTR pin. Refer to Phase-
Locked Loop and Frequency Synchronization for addi-
tional information.
A graph for the voltage applied to the PLLFLTR pin vs
frequency is given in Figure␣ 2. As the operating frequency
is increased the gate charge losses will be higher, reducing
efficiency (see Efficiency Considerations). The maximum
switching frequency is approximately 310kHz.
effect of inductor value on ripple current and low current
operation must also be considered. The PolyPhase ap-
proach reduces both input and output ripple currents
while optimizing individual output stages to run at a lower
fundamental frequency, enhancing efficiency.
The inductor value has a direct effect on ripple current.
The inductor ripple current I
L
per individual section, N,
decreases with higher inductance or frequency and
increases with higher V
IN
or V
OUT
:
I
V
fL
V
V
L
OUT OUT
IN
=−
1
where f is the individual output stage operating frequency.
In a 2-phase converter, the net ripple current seen by the
output capacitor is much smaller than the individual
inductor ripple currents due to ripple cancellation. The
details on how to calculate the net output ripple current
can be found in Application Note 77.
Figure 3 shows the net ripple current seen by the output
capacitors for the 1- and 2- phase configurations. The
output ripple current is plotted for a fixed output voltage as
the duty factor is varied between 10% and 90% on the
x-axis. The output ripple current is normalized against the
inductor ripple current at zero duty factor. The graph can
be used in place of tedious calculations, simplifying the
design process.
Figure 2. Operating Frequency vs V
PLLFLTR
OPERATING FREQUENCY (kHz)
120 170 220 270 320
PLLFLTR PIN VOLTAGE (V)
1709 F02
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0
Figure 3. Normalized Output Ripple Current
vs Duty Factor [I
RMS
0.3 (I
O(P–P)
)]
Inductor Value Calculation and Output Ripple Current
The operating frequency and inductor selection are inter-
related in that higher operating frequencies allow the use
of smaller inductor and capacitor values. So why would
anyone ever choose to operate at lower frequencies with
larger components? The answer is efficiency. A higher
frequency generally results in lower efficiency because
MOSFET gate charge and transition losses increase di-
rectly with frequency. In addition to this basic tradeoff, the
DUTY FACTOR (V
OUT
/V
IN
)
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
1709 F03
2-PHASE
1-PHASE
I
O(P-P)
V
O
/fL

LTC1709EG-9#PBF

Mfr. #:
Manufacturer:
Analog Devices / Linear Technology
Description:
Switching Voltage Regulators Hi Pwr PolyPhase DC/DC Controllers
Lifecycle:
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