MIC2937A/29371/29372
Micrel
Applications Information
External Capacitors
A 10µF (or greater) capacitor is required between the
MIC2937A output and ground to prevent oscillations due to
instability. Most types of tantalum or aluminum electrolytics
will be adequate; film types will work, but are costly and
therefore not recommended. Many aluminum electrolytics
have electrolytes that freeze at about –30°C, so solid tantalums
are recommended for operation below –25°C. The important
parameters of the capacitor are an effective series resistance
of about 5Ω or less and a resonant frequency above 500kHz.
The value of this capacitor may be increased without limit.
At lower values of output current, less output capacitance is
required for output stability. The capacitor can be reduced to
0.5µF for current below 10mA or 0.15µF for currents below
1 mA. Adjusting the MIC29372 to voltages below 5V runs the
error amplifier at lower gains so that more output capacitance
is needed. For the worst-case situation of a 750mA load at
1.23V output (Output shorted to Adjust) a 22µF (or greater)
capacitor should be used.
The MIC2937A/29371 will remain in regulation with a minimum
load of 5mA. When setting the output voltage of the MIC29372
version with external resistors, the current through these
resistors may be included as a portion of the minimum load.
A 0.1µF capacitor should be placed from the input to ground
if there is more than 10 inches of wire between the input and
the AC filter capacitor or if a battery is used as the input.
The error comparator has an NPN open-collector output
which requires an external pull-up resistor. Depending on
system requirements, this resistor may be returned to the 5V
output or some other supply voltage. In determining a value
for this resistor, note that while the output is rated to sink
250µA, this sink current adds to battery drain in a low battery
condition. Suggested values range from 100k to 1MΩ. The
resistor is not required if this output is unused.
Programming the Output Voltage (MIC29372)
The MIC29372 may programmed for any output voltage
between its 1.235V reference and its 26V maximum rating. An
external pair of resistors is required, as shown in Figure 3.
The complete equation for the output voltage is
V
OUT
= V
REF
x { 1 + R
1
/R
2
} –
|
I
FB
|
R
1
where V
REF
is the nominal 1.235 reference voltage and I
FB
is
the Adjust pin bias current, nominally 20nA. The minimum
recommended load current of 1µA forces an upper limit of
1.2MΩ on the value of R
2
, if the regulator must work with no
load (a condition often found in CMOS in standby), I
FB
will
produce a –2% typical error in V
OUT
which may be eliminated
at room temperature by trimming R
1
. For better accuracy,
choosing R
2
= 100k reduces this error to 0.17% while increasing
the resistor program current to 12µA. Since the MIC29372
typically draws 100µA at no load with SHUTDOWN open-
circuited, this is a negligible addition.
Error Detection Comparator Output (MIC29371)
A logic low output will be produced by the comparator whenever
the MIC29371 output falls out of regulation by more than
approximately 5%. This figure is the comparator’s built-in
offset of about 75mV divided by the 1.235V reference voltage.
(Refer to the block diagram on Page 1). This trip level remains
“5% below normal” regardless of the programmed output
voltage of the MIC29371. For example, the error flag trip level
is typically 4.75V for a 5V output or 11.4V for a 12V output. The
out of regulation condition may be due either to low input
voltage,extremely high input voltage, current limiting, or thermal
limiting.
Figure 1 is a timing diagram depicting the ERROR signal and
the regulated output voltage as the MIC29371 input is ramped
up and down. The ERROR signal becomes valid (low) at
about 1.3V input. It goes high at about 5V input (the input
voltage at which V
OUT
= 4.75). Since the MIC29371’s dropout
voltage is load-dependent (see curve in Typical Performance
Characteristics), the input voltage trip point (about 5V) will
vary with the load current. The output voltage trip point
(approximately 4.75V) does not vary with load.
Reducing Output Noise
In reference applications it may be advantageous to reduce
the AC noise present at the output. One method is to reduce
the regulator bandwidth by increasing the size of the output
capacitor. This is relatively inefficient, as increasing the
capacitor from 1µF to 220µF only decreases the noise from
430µV to 160µV
RMS
for a 100kHz bandwidth at 5V output.
Noise can be reduced by a factor of four with the adjustable
4.75V
OUTPUT
VOLTAGE
ERROR
NOT
*
VALID
NOT
*
VALID
INPUT
VOLTAGE
1.3V
5V
* SEE APPLICATIONS INFORMATION
Figure 1. ERROR Output Timing
October 1999
25
MIC2937A/29371/29372
MICREL [ MICREL SEMICONDUCTOR ]
