10
LTC3716
OPERATIO
U
(Refer to Functional Diagram)
Main Control Loop
The LTC3716 uses a constant frequency, current mode
step-down architecture with the two output stages oper-
ating 180 degrees out of phase. During normal operation,
each top MOSFET is turned on when the clock for that
channel 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 con-
trolled by the voltage on the I
TH
pin, which is the output of
error amplifier EA. The EAIN pin receives the voltage
feedback signal, which is compared to the internal refer-
ence voltage by the EA. When the load current increases,
it causes a slight decrease in V
EAIN
relative to the 0.6V
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 until either the inductor current
starts to reverse, as indicated by current comparator I
2
, or
the beginning of the next cycle.
The top MOSFET drivers are biased from floating boot-
strap capacitor C
B
, which normally is recharged during
each off cycle through an external diode when the top
MOSFET turns off. As V
IN
decreases to a voltage close to
V
OUT
, the loop may enter dropout and attempt to turn on
the top MOSFET continuously. The dropout detector de-
tects this and forces the top MOSFET off for about 500ns
every tenth cycle to allow C
B
to recharge.
The main control loop is shut down by pulling the RUN/
SS pin 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, the I
TH
pin
voltage is gradually released allowing normal, full-current
operation.
Low Current Operation
The FCB pin is a multifunction pin providing two func-
tions: 1) to provide regulation for a secondary winding by
temporarily forcing continuous PWM operation on
both controllers; and 2) select between
two
modes of low
current operation. When the FCB pin voltage is below
0.6V, the controller forces continuous PWM current
mode operation. In this mode, the top and bottom
MOSFETs are alternately turned on to maintain the output
voltage independent of direction of inductor current.
When the FCB pin is below V
INTVCC
–␣ 2V but greater than
0.6V, the controller enters Burst Mode operation. Burst
Mode operation sets a minimum output current level
before inhibiting the top switch and turns off the synchro-
nous MOSFET(s) when the inductor current goes nega-
tive. This combination of requirements will, at low currents,
force the I
TH
pin below a voltage threshold that will
temporarily inhibit turn-on of both output MOSFETs until
the output voltage drops. There is 60mV of hysteresis in
the burst comparator B tied to the I
TH
pin. This hysteresis
produces output signals to the MOSFETs that turn them
on for several cycles, followed by a variable “sleep”
interval depending upon the load current. The resultant
output voltage ripple is held to a very small value by
having the hysteretic comparator after the error amplifier
gain block.
Constant Frequency Operation
When the FCB pin is tied to INTV
CC
, Burst Mode operation
is disabled and a forced minimum peak output current
requirement is removed. This provides constant frequency,
discontinuous (preventing reverse inductor current) cur-
rent operation over the widest possible output current
range. This constant frequency operation is not as efficient
as Burst Mode operation, but does provide a lower noise,
constant frequency operating mode down to approxi-
mately 1% of designed maximum output current.
Continuous Current (PWM) Operation
Tying the FCB pin to ground will force continuous current
operation. This is the least efficient operating mode, but
may be desirable in certain applications. The output can
source or sink current in this mode. When sinking current
while in forced continuous operation, current will be
forced back into the main power supply potentially boost-
ing the input supply to dangerous voltage levels—
BEWARE!
11
LTC3716
OPERATIO
U
(Refer to Functional Diagram)
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 4.8V, 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.
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 with-
out these internal feedback resistors for other applications.
The AMPMD pin is grounded to connect the internal pre-
cision 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 capacitive loads
with an output RMS current typically up to 25mA. The
amplifier is not capable of sinking current and therefore
must be resistively loaded to do so.
Output Overvoltage Protection
An overvoltage comparator, 0V, guards against transient
overshoots (>10%) as well as other more serious condi-
tions that may overvoltage the output. In this case, the top
MOSFET is turned off and the bottom MOSFET is turned on
until the overvoltage condition is cleared.
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 ±10% of its nominal output level as deter-
mined by the feedback divider. When the output is within
±10% 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 control-
lers 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 as-
suming 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 compli-
ance of 5V to the RUN/SS pin. This current shortens the
12
LTC3716
APPLICATIO S I FOR ATIO
WUU
U
The basic LTC3716 application circuit is shown in
Figure␣ 1 on the first page. External component selection
begins with the selection of the inductors based on ripple
current requirements and continues with the current
sensing resistors using the calculated peak inductor
current and/or maximum current limit. Next, the power
MOSFETs, D1 and D2 are selected. The operating fre-
quency 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 be-
tween 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). Current mode control
allows the ability to connect the two output stages to two
different
input power supply rails. A heavy output load can
take some power from
each
input supply according to the
selection of the R
SENSE
resistors.
R
SENSE
Selection For Output Current
R
SENSE1,2
are chosen based on the required peak output
current. The LTC3716 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
.
Assuming a common input power source for each output
stage and allowing a margin for variations in the
LTC3716 and external component values yields:
R
SENSE
= 2(50mV/I
MAX
)
Operating Frequency
The LTC3716 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.
Figure 2. Operating Frequency vs V
PLLFLTR
OPERATING FREQUENCY (kHz)
120 170 220 270 320
PLLFLTR PIN VOLTAGE (V)
3716 F02
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0
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
soft-start period but also prevents net discharge of the
RUN/SS capacitor during a severe overcurrent and/or
short-circuit condition. Foldback current limiting is acti-
OPERATIO
U
(Refer to Functional Diagram)
vated when the output voltage falls below 70% of its
nominal level whether or not the short-circuit latchoff
circuit is enabled.
PolyPhase is a registered trademark of Linear Technology Corporation.

LTC3716EG#TRPBF

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Switching Voltage Regulators Dual Phase Step Down Converter
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