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PRODUCT SPECIFICATION
RC5033
12
P
Selecting the Inductor
The inductor is one of the most critical components to be
selected in the DC-to-DC converter application. The critical
parameters are inductance (L), max DC current (Imax), and
the coil resistance (Rl). The inductor core material is a criti-
cal factor in determining the amount of current that the
inductor will be able to handle. As with all engineering
designs there are trade- offs for various types of inductor
core materials. In general, Ferrites are popular because of
their low cost, low EMI, and high frequency (>500kHz)
characteristics. Molypermalloy powder (MPP) materials
have good saturation characteristics and low EMI with low
hysteresis losses; however they tend to be expensive and are
more efficiently utilized at frequencies below 400kHz. DC
winding resistance is another critical parameter. In general,
the DC resistance should be kept as low as possible. The
power loss in the DC resistance will degrade the efficiency of
the converter by the relationship: Power Loss = (Io)2*Rl.
The value of the inductor is a function of the switching fre-
quency (Ton) and the maximum inductor current. The max
inductor current can be calculated from the relationship:
Where: Fo is the desired clock frequency
Ton is the max on time of the M1 FET
Vd is the forward voltage of the schottky diode D1
Then the inductor value can be calculated with the
relationship:
Where: Vdson is the voltage across the drain-source of the
M1 FET when switched on.
(this can be calculated by RDSon * Imax)
Current-Sense Resistor
The current sense resistor will carry all of the peak current of
the inductor. This current will be more than the designed for
load current. The RC5033 will begin to limit the output cur-
rent to the load by turning off the top-side FET driver when
the voltage across the current-sense resistor exceeds 100mV.
When this happens the output voltage will temporarily go
out of regulation. As the voltage across the resistor becomes
larger, the top-side FET will turn off more and more until the
current limit value is reached and then the RC5033 will
con-
tinuously deliver the limit current at a reduced output voltage
level. To insure that load transient conditions do not momen-
tarily cause deregulation of the output voltage, a 20% margin
in the limit voltage is advisable. Thus the resistor should be
set by the relationship:
R = 100 mV/ Ipeak
Where: Ipeak = Imax * 1.33
I
MAX
2I
F
O
T
ON
OUT
V
OUT
V
D
–
–
-V
è
1
+
--------------------V
=
L
V
----------I
ON
V
MAX
–
(
)
=
Since the value of the sense resistor is generally in the mil-
iohm region, care should be taken in the layout of the PCB.
Trace resistance can contribute significant errors. The traces
to the IFB and VFB pins of the RC5033 should be Kelvin
connected to the pads of the current-sense resistor as shown
in the sample layout Figure 5. To minimize the influence of
noise the two traces should be run next to each other and the
pins should be bypassed with a .1uF to GND as close to the
device pins as possible.
Filter Capacitors
Good ripple performance and transient response are func-
tions of the filter capacitors. Since the 5V input for a PC
motherboard can be located several inches away from the
DC-to-DC converter, input capacitance can play an impor-
tant role in the load transient response of the RC5033. In
general, the higher the input capacitance, the more charge
storage is available for improving the current transfer
through the top-side FET. A good rule of thumb is that for
each watt of output power that you wish to deliver, there
should be around 10uF of input capacitance. Low “ESR”
capacitors are best suited for this application and can have an
influence on the converter’s efficiency. The input capacitor
should be placed as close to the drain of the top-side FET as
possible to reduce the effect of ringing that can be caused by
large trace lengths.
The ESR rating of a capacitor is a difficult number to pin
down. ESR or Equivalent Series Resistance, is defined at the
resonant impedance of that capacitor. Since the capacitor is
actually a complex impedance device having resistance,
inductance and capacitance, it is quite natural for it to have
an associated resonant frequency. As a rule, the lower the
ESR, the better suited the capacitor is for use in switching
power supply applications.
Many capacitor manufacturers do
not supply ESR data. A useful estimate of the ESR can be
obtained with the
following equation: ESR = Pd/2pfC.
Where Pd is the capacitor’s dissipation factor and f is the fre-
quency of measure and C is the capacitance in farads.
With this in mind, calculating the output capacitance cor-
rectly is crucial to the performance of the DC-to-DC con-
verter. The output capacitor determines the overall loop
stability, output voltage ripple, and the transient load
response. The calculation uses the following equation:
Where: Vr is the desired output ripple voltage
Schottky Diode Selection
The application circuit diagram shows two schottky diodes,
DS1 and DS2. DS1 is used in parallel of M2 in order to pre-
vent the lossy body diode in the FET from turning on. DS2
serves a dual purpose. As it is configured, it allows the
VCCQP supply pin of the RC5033 to be bootstrapped up to
C
m
F
(
)
T
ON
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
V
----------------V
V
V
r
–
(
)
I
MAX
I
L
+
=