LTC3604 APPLICATIONS INFORMATION A general LTC3604 application circuit is shown on the first Connecting the RT pin to INTVCC will default the converter page of this data sheet. External component selection is to fO = 2MHz; however, this switching frequency will be largely driven by the load requirement and begins with the more sensitive to process and temperature variations than selection of the inductor L. Once the inductor is chosen, the when using a resistor on RT (see Typical Performance input capacitor, CIN, the output capacitor, COUT , the inter- Characteristics). nal regulator capacitor, CINTVCC, and the boost capacitor, C Inductor Selection BOOST, can be selected. Next, the feedback resistors are selected to set the desired output voltage. Finally, the remain- For a given input and output voltage, the inductor value and ing optional external components can be selected for func- operating frequency determine the inductor ripple current. tions such as external loop compensation, track/soft-start, More specifically, the inductor ripple current decreases externally programmed oscillator frequency and PGOOD. with higher inductor value or higher operating frequency according to the following equation: Operating Frequency V Selection of the operating frequency is a trade-off between ∆I OUT L = VOUT 1– efficiency and component size. High frequency operation f •L V IN allows the use of smaller inductor and capacitor values. where ∆IL = inductor ripple current, f = operating frequency Operation at lower frequencies improves efficiency by and L = inductor value. A trade-off between component reducing internal gate charge losses but requires larger size, efficiency and operating frequency can be seen from inductance values and/or capacitance to maintain low this equation. Accepting larger values of ∆IL allows the use output ripple voltage. of lower value inductors but results in greater core loss The operating frequency, f in the inductor, greater ESR loss in the output capacitor, O, of the LTC3604 is determined by an external resistor that is connected between the RT and larger output ripple. Generally, highest efficiency op- pin and ground. The value of the resistor sets the ramp eration is obtained at low operating frequency with small current that is used to charge and discharge an internal ripple current. timing capacitor within the oscillator and can be calculated A reasonable starting point for setting the ripple current is by using the following equation: about 40% of IOUT(MAX). Note that the largest ripple current occurs at the highest VIN. To guarantee the ripple current R RT = 3.2 E11 does not exceed a specified maximum the inductance fO should be chosen according to: where RRT is in Ω and fO is in Hz. V L = VOUT OUT 6000 1– f • ∆I V L(MAX) IN(MAX) 5000 However, the inductor ripple current must not be so large 4000 that its valley current level exceeds the negative current limit of –1.7A (typical) when the circuit is operating in 3000 forced continuous mode. If the inductor current trough reaches the negative current limit while the part is in FREQUENCY (kHz) 2000 forced continuous mode operation, VOUT may charge up 1000 to above its target regulation voltage. In such instances, choose a larger inductor value to reduce the ripple current. 0 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 The alternative is to reduce the inductor ripple current by RT (kΩ) decreasing the RT resistor value, which will increase the 3604 F01 Figure 1. Switching Frequency vs R switching frequency. T 3604fa 10 For more information www.linear.com/LTC3604 Document Outline Features Applications Typical Application Description Absolute Maximum Ratings Pin Configuration Order Information Electrical Characteristics Typical Performance Characteristics Pin Functions Functional Block Diagram Operation Applications Information Typical Applications Package Description Revision History Related Parts