MIC2571
Micrel
Functional Description
The MIC2571 switch-mode power supply (SMPS) is a gated
oscillator architecture designed to operate from an input
voltage as low as 0.9V and provide a high-efficiency fixed or
adjustable regulated output voltage. One advantage of this
architecture is that the output switch is disabled whenever the
output voltage is above the feedback comparator threshold
thereby greatly reducing quiescent current and improving
efficiency, especially at low output currents.
Refer to the Block Diagrams for the following discription of
typical gated oscillator boost regulator function.
The bandgap reference provides a constant 0.22V over a
wide range of input voltage and junction temperature. The
comparator senses the output voltage through an internal or
external resistor divider and compares it to the bandgap
reference voltage.
When the voltage at the inverting input of the comparator is
below 0.22V, the comparator output is high and the output of
the oscillator is allowed to pass through the AND gate to the
output driver and output switch. The output switch then turns
on and off storing energy in the inductor. When the output
switch is on (low) energy is stored in the inductor; when the
switch is off (high) the stored energy is dumped into the output
capacitor which causes the output voltage to rise.
When the output voltage is high enough to cause the com-
parator output to be low (inverting input voltage is above
0.22V) the AND gate is disabled and the output switch
remains off (high). The output switch remains disabled until
the output voltage falls low enough to cause the comparator
output to go high.
There is about 6mV of hysteresis built into the comparator to
prevent jitter about the switch point. Due to the gain of the
feedback resistor divider the voltage at V
OUT
experiences
about 120mV of hysteresis for a 5V output.
Supply
Voltage
5V
V
IN
0V
I
PEAK
0mA
Output
Voltage
Peak
Current
5V
Time
Figure 1. Typical Boost Regulator Waveforms
Synchronization
The SYNC pin is used to synchronize the MIC2571 to an
external oscillator or clock signal. This can reduce system
noise by correlating switching noise with a known system
frequency. When not in use, the SYNC pin should be
grounded to prevent spurious circuit operation. A falling edge
at the SYNC input triggers a one-shot pulse which resets the
oscillator. It is possible to use the SYNC pin to generate
oscillator duty cycles from approximately 20% up to the
nominal duty cycle.
Current Limit
Current limit for the MIC2571 is internally set with a resistor.
It functions by modifying the oscillator duty cycle and fre-
quency. When current exceeds 1.2A, the duty cycle is
reduced (switch on-time is reduced, off-time is unaffected)
and the corresponding frequency is increased. In this way
less time is available for the inductor current to build up while
maintaining the same discharge time. The onset of current
limit is soft rather than abrupt but sufficient to protect the
inductor and output switch from damage. Certain combina-
tions of input voltage, output voltage and load current can
cause the inductor to go into a continuous mode of operation.
This is what happens when the inductor current can not fall to
zero and occurs when:
Appications Information
Oscillator Duty Cycle and Frequency
The oscillator duty cycle is set to 67% which is optimized to
provide maximum load current for output voltages approxi-
mately 3× larger than the input voltage. Other output voltages
are also easily generated but at a small cost in efficiency. The
fixed oscillator frequency (options -1 and -2) is set to 20kHz.
duty cycle
≤
V
OUT
+ V
DIODE
– V
IN
V
OUT
+ V
DIODE
– V
SAT
Output Waveforms
The voltage waveform seen at the collector of the output
switch (SW pin) is either a continuous value equal to V
IN
or a
switching waveform running at a frequency and duty cycle set
by the oscillator. The continuous voltage equal to V
IN
happens when the voltage at the output (V
OUT
) is high
enough to cause the comparator to disable the AND gate. In
this state the output switch is off and no switching of the
inductor occurs. When V
OUT
drops low enough to cause the
comparator output to change to the high state the output
switch is driven by the oscillator. See Figure 1 for typical
voltage waveforms in a boost application.
Current "ratchet"
without current limit
Inductor Current
Current limit threshold
Continuous current
Discontinuous current
Time
Figure 2. Current Limit Behavior
MIC2571
6
1997
MIC [ MIC GROUP RECTIFIERS ]
