
LXE1684
Evaluation Board Installation Guide
Copyright  2001
Rev. 0.1   9/11/01
Page 3
New Product Information
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ESCRIPTION
With Both 5V and 12V power supplies readily available on an AT or ATX desktop power supply, the 
LX1684 provides a flexible option for choosing either 5V or 12V as power source. Differential current 
sensing allows more accurate current sensing from 12V which is unavailable  in the earlier 
LX1681/LX1682 controllers. The LXE1684 provides lossless HICCUP mode current limiting eliminating 
the need for an expensive current sense resistor. The unit can survive an output short circuit condition 
indefinitely without overstressing onboard power MOSFETS and inductor. Power consumption during 
output short-circuit and during Hiccup mode is less than 10% of 10A full current load.  
Utilizing synchronous Logic Level MOSFET rectification, the LXE1684  features high efficiency 
conversion (typically  87% at full load of 10A for 12V to 3.3V application). With a switching frequency 
of about 200KHz, it provides an optimum efficiency and low ripple output voltage over a full range of  
output current load. 
Features 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
High efficiency switching 3.3V power supply  
Up to 92% efficiency for 12V to 3.3V application. 
Internally compensated 16Mhz bandwidth opamp provides fast transient response 
Lossless Hiccup R
DS_ON 
sensing current limit protection  
Voltage mode opamp requires no external compensation  
Built in MOSFET drivers reduce overall cost. 
Short Circuit protection: Can sustain  output short circuit without overstressing MOSFET 
and inductors on board, 
Differential Kelvin current sensing provides superior performance than LX1681/LX1682 
in terms of ease of use, accuracy and noise immunity. 
 
Capacitor selection 
The LXE1684 are shipped from factory  with  aluminum electrolytic capacitors in order to minimize 
overall cost. The designer should choose long life, 105°C high temperature and high maximum ripple 
current electrolytic capacitors in order to meet the demand of high ripple currents inherent to DC/DC high 
current switching power supplies. Traditional aluminum electrolytic capacitors however are bulky in 
comparison to newer type of special polymer dielectric or organic dielectric capacitors. 
The LXE1684 PCB layout therefore is designed with both surface mount pads and through hole pads for 
its power components such as FETs, inductors and capacitors, can be easily  reconfigured to use all 
surface mount components for high performance and low profile space constrained  applications such as 
video cards, memory power supply and other PCI bus and AGP bus multimedia interface cards.  
The major advantage of LX1684 over LX1681 is that with differential current sensing with both positive 
current sense and negative current sense, the topside power MOSFET can be far away from LX1684 
and/or have different voltage and still provide superior performance in comparison with the LX1682. The 
LX1684 does not limit the power input option to 5V,  if current sensing is used. With 5V readily available 
on desktop AT and ATX power supplies, the LXE1684 can provide a DC to DC power supply which can 
draw power from 12V, 5V or 3.3V to provide  output voltages as low as 1.25V while providing lossless 
R
DS_ON
 sensing for all power input options. Ripple voltage can be lower than 10mV if high performance 
Poly capacitors or OSCON capacitors are used. The LX1684 provides stable operation with  total output 
capacitor ESR  as low as 5m
 when used in a DC to DC buck configuration. 
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