Rainbow Electronics MAX17480 User Manual
Page 39
MAX17480
AMD 2-/3-Output Mobile Serial
VID Controller
______________________________________________________________________________________
39
Core SMPS Design Procedure
Core Inductor Selection
By design, the AMD mobile serial VID application
should regard each of the MAX17480 SMPSs as inde-
pendent, single-phase SMPSs. The switching frequen-
cy and operating point (% ripple current or LIR)
determine the inductor value as follows:
where I
LOAD(MAX)
is the maximum current per phase,
and f
SW
is the switching frequency per phase.
Find a low-loss inductor with the lowest possible DC
resistance that fits in the allotted dimensions. If using a
swinging inductor (where the inductance decreases lin-
early with increasing current), evaluate the LIR with
properly scaled inductance values. For the selected
inductance value, the actual peak-to-peak inductor
ripple current (
∆I
INDUCTOR
) is defined by:
Ferrite cores are often the best choice, although pow-
dered iron is inexpensive and can work well at 200kHz.
The core must be large enough not to saturate at the
peak inductor current (I
PEAK
):
Core Peak Inductor Current Limit (ILIM12)
The MAX17480 overcurrent protection employs a peak
current-sensing algorithm that uses either current-
sense resistors or the inductor’s DCR as the current-
sense element (see the
Current Sense
section). Since
the controller limits the peak inductor current, the maxi-
mum average load current is less than the peak cur-
rent-limit threshold by an amount equal to half the
inductor ripple current. Therefore, the maximum load
capability is a function of the current-sense resistance,
inductor value, switching frequency, and input-to-out-
put voltage difference. When combined with the output
undervoltage-protection circuit, the system is effectively
protected against excessive overload conditions.
The peak current-limit threshold is set by the voltage
difference between ILIM and REF using an external
resistor-divider:
V
CS(PK)
= V
CSP
_ - V
CSN
_ = 0.052 x (V
REF
- V
ILIM12
)
I
LIMIT(PK)
= V
CS(PK)
/R
SENSE
where R
SENSE
is the resistance value of the current-
sense element (inductors’ DCR or current-sense resis-
tor), and I
LIMIT(PK)
is the desired peak current limit (per
phase). The peak current-limit threshold voltage adjust-
ment range is from 10mV to 50mV.
Core Output Capacitor Selection
The output filter capacitor must have low enough ESR to
meet output ripple and load-transient requirements. In
CPU V
CORE
converters and other applications where the
output is subject to large load transients, the output
capacitor’s size typically depends on how much ESR is
needed to prevent the output from dipping too low under a
load transient. Ignoring the sag due to finite capacitance:
In non-CPU applications, the output capacitor’s size
often depends on how much ESR is needed to maintain
an acceptable level of output ripple voltage. The output
ripple voltage of a step-down controller equals the total
inductor ripple current multiplied by the output capaci-
tor’s ESR. When operating multiphase systems out-of-
phase, the peak inductor currents of each phase are
staggered, resulting in lower output ripple voltage
(V
RIPPLE
) by reducing the total inductor ripple current.
For nonoverlapping, multiphase operation (V
IN
≥ V
OUT
),
the maximum ESR to meet the output-ripple-voltage
requirement is:
where f
SW
is the switching frequency per phase. The
actual capacitance value required relates to the physi-
cal size needed to achieve low ESR, as well as to the
chemistry of the capacitor technology. Thus, the capac-
itor selection is usually limited by ESR and voltage rat-
ing rather than by capacitance value (this is true of
polymer types).
The capacitance value required is determined primarily
by the output transient-response requirements. Low
inductor values allow the inductor current to slew faster,
replenishing charge removed from or added to the out-
put filter capacitors by a sudden load step. Therefore,
the amount of output soar when the load is removed is
a function of the output voltage and inductor value. The
minimum output capacitance required to prevent over-
shoot (V
SOAR
) due to stored inductor energy can be
calculated as:
C
I
L
V
V
OUT
LOAD MAX
OUT SOAR
≥
(
)
∆
(
)
2
2
R
V f
L
V
V
V
V
ESR
IN SW
IN
OUT
OUT
RIPPLE
≤
−
(
)
⎡
⎣
⎢
⎢
⎤
⎦
⎥
⎥
R
R
V
I
ESR
PCB
STEP
LOAD MAX
+
(
)
≤
∆
(
)
I
I
I
PEAK
LOAD MAX
PH
INDUCTOR
=
⎛
⎝
⎜
⎞
⎠
⎟+
⎛
⎝
⎜
⎞
⎠
⎟
(
)
η
∆
2
∆I
V
V
V
V f
L
INDUCTOR
OUT
IN
OUT
IN SW
=
−
(
)
L
V
V
f
I
LIR
V
V
IN
OUT
SW LOAD MAX
OUT
IN
=
−
⎛
⎝
⎜⎜
⎞
⎠
⎟⎟
⎛
⎝
(
)
⎜⎜
⎞
⎠
⎟