20
LTC1702A
1702afa
current that the LTC1702A will draw. If the data sheet
doesn’t give an RMS current rating, chances are the
capacitor isn’t surge tested. Don’t use it!
OUTPUT BYPASS CAPACITOR
The output bypass capacitor has quite different require-
ments from the input capacitor. The ripple current at the
output of a buck regulator like the LTC1702A is much
lower than at the input, due to the fact that the inductor
current is constantly flowing at the output whenever the
LTC1702A is operating in continuous mode. The primary
concern at the output is capacitor ESR. Fast load current
transitions at the output will appear as voltage across the
ESR of the output bypass capacitor until the feedback loop
in the LTC1702A can change the inductor current to match
the new load current value. This ESR step at the output is
often the single largest budget item in the load regulation
calculation. As an example, our hypothetical 1.6V, 10A
switcher with a 0.01Ω ESR output capacitor would expe-
rience a 100mV step at the output with a 0 to 10A load
step—a 6.3% output change!
Usually the solution is to parallel several capacitors at the
output. For example, to keep the transient response inside
of 3% with the previous design, we’d need an output ESR
better than 0.0048Ω. This can be met with three 0.014Ω,
470µF low ESR tantalum capacitors in parallel.
APPLICATIONS INFORMATION
WUU
U
INDUCTOR
The inductor in a typical LTC1702A circuit is chosen
primarily for value and saturation current. The inductor
value sets the ripple current, which is commonly chosen
at around 40% of the anticipated full load current. Ripple
current is set by:
I
tV
L
RIPPLE
ON Q OUT
=
()
()2
In our hypothetical 1.6V, 10A example, we'd set the ripple
current to 40% of 10A or 4A, and the inductor value would
be:
L
tV
I
sV
A
H
with t
V
V
kHz s
ON Q OUT
RIPPLE
ON Q
=
()
=
µ
()()
=µ
= −
⎛
⎝
⎜
⎞
⎠
⎟
=µ
()
()
..
.
.
/.
2
2
12 16
4
05
1
16
5
550 1 2
The inductor must not saturate at the expected peak
current. In this case, if the current limit was set to 15A, the
inductor should be rated to withstand 15A + 1/2 I
RIPPLE
,
or 17A without saturating.
FEEDBACK LOOP/COMPENSATION
1
Feedback Loop Types
In a typical LTC1702A circuit, the feedback loop consists
of the modulator, the external inductor and output capaci-
tor, and the feedback amplifier and its compensation
network. All of these components affect loop behavior and
need to be accounted for in the loop compensation. The
modulator consists of the internal PWM generator, the
output MOSFET drivers and the external MOSFETs them-
selves. From a feedback loop point of view, it looks like a
linear voltage transfer function from COMP to SW and has
a gain roughly equal to the input voltage. It has fairly
benign AC behavior at typical loop compensation frequen-
cies with significant phase shift appearing at half the
switching frequency.
The external inductor/output capacitor combination makes
a more significant contribution to loop behavior. These
components cause a second order LC roll-off at the
1
The information in this section is based on the paper “The K Factor: A New Mathematical Tool for
Stability Analysis and Synthesis” by H. Dean Venable, Venable Industries, Inc. For complete paper,
see “Reference Reading #4” at www.linear-tech.com.
0
10A
32%
68%
0
10A
32% 18%
18%
18%32%
–3.2A
0
6.8A
32%
68%
Q1 CURRENT, SIDE 1 ONLY
(FOR 1-PHASE, 2 SIDES:
MULTIPLY CURRENT BY 2)
CURRENT IN C
IN
, SIDE 1 ONLY
I
CIN
= 4.66A
RMS
, (1-PHASE,
2 SIDES: I
CIN
= 9.3A
RMS
)
CURRENT IN C
IN
,
BOTH SIDES EQUAL LOAD
I
CIN
= 4.8A
RMS
Q11 CURRENT
Q21 CURRENT
BOTH SIDES EQUAL LOAD
2-PHASE OPERATION
–6.4A
0
3.6A
32% 18%
1702A F07
32%
Figure 7. RMS Input Current