
 Bay Linear, Inc    
2478 Armstrong Street, Livermore, CA 94550   Tel: (925) 989-7144, Fax: (925) 940-9556                                                   www.baylinear.com
LM2940/2941
APPLICATION HINTS
The Bay Linear LM2941 incorporates protection against over-current 
faults, reversed load insertion, over temperature operation, and 
positive and negative transient voltage.  However, the use of an output 
capacitor is required in order to insure the stability and the 
performances. 
Thermal Consideration 
Although the LM2941 offers limiting circuitry for overload 
conditions, it is necessary not to exceed the maximum junction 
temperature, and therefore to be careful about thermal resistance.  The 
heat flow will follow the lowest resistance path, which is the Junction-
to-case thermal resistance.  In order to insure the best thermal flow of 
the component, a proper mounting is required.  Note that the case of 
the device is electrically connected to the output.  The  
case has to be electrically isolated, a thermally conductive spacer can 
be used.  However do not forget to consider its contribution to thermal 
resistance. 
Assuming: 
V
IN
 = 10V, V
OUT
 = 5V, I
OUT
 = 1.5A, T
A
 = 90
°
C, 
θ
CASE
= 1
°
C/W (no 
external heat sink, no wind) 
Power dissipation under these conditions 
P
D
 = (V
IN
 – V
OUT
) * I
OUT
 = 7.5W 
Junction Temperature 
T
J
 = T
A
 + P
D
 * (
θ
CASE
+ 
θ
JC
) 
For the Control Section 
T
J
 = 90
°
C + 7.5W*(1
°
C/W + 0.6
°
C/W) = 102
°
C 
114
°
C < T
JUNCTION MAX
 for the control section. 
For the Power Section 
T
J
 = 90
°
C + 7.5W*(1
°
C/W + 1.6
°
C/W) = 104.5
°
C 
109.5
°
C < T
JUNCTION MAX
 for the power transistor. 
In both case reliable operation is insured by adequate junction 
temperature. 
Capacitor Requirements 
The output capacitor is needed for stability and to minimize the output 
noise.  The required value of the capacitor varies with the load.  
However, a minimum value of 10
μ
F Aluminum will guarantee 
stability over load.  A tantalum capacitor is recommended for a fast 
load transient response. 
If the power source has high AC impedance, a 0.1
μ
F capacitor 
between input & ground is recommended.  This capacitor should have 
good characteristics up to 250 kHz. 
Minimum Load Current 
To ensure a proper behavior of the regulator at light load, a 
minimum load of 5mA for LM2941 is required. 
Adjustable Regulator Design 
B29152/53 are adjustable regulators and maybe programmed for 
any value between 1.25V and 26V using two resistors.  The relation 
between the resistors is given by: 
R
1
=R
2
 (V
OUT
/1.240 –1) 
Resistors have a large value up to 1m
 in order to reduce the 
current consumption.  This might be interesting in the case of 
widely varying load currents. 
Enable Input 
LM2941  features enable input allowing turning ON & OFF the 
device.  EN has been designed to be compatible with TTL/CMOS 
logic.  When the regulator is ON, the current flowing through this 
pin is approximately 20
μ
A. 
4
5
3
2
1
B2941
V
OUT
V
IN
R
1
R
2
Fig. 2  Adjustable Output Voltage Regulator
2
)]
For best results, the total series resistance should be small
enough to pass the minimum regulator load current
BAY
V
OUT
= V
REF
X [1 + (R
1
/
B2940
Fig.1   Basic Fixed Output Regulator
V
OU
T
V
IN
BAY