Datasheet

10
LTC3410
3410fb
APPLICATIO S I FOR ATIO
WUUU
where L1, L2, etc. are the individual losses as a percentage
of input power.
Although all dissipative elements in the circuit produce
losses, two main sources usually account for most of the
losses in LTC3410 circuits: V
IN
quiescent current and I
2
R
losses. The V
IN
quiescent current loss dominates the
efficiency loss at very low load currents whereas the I
2
R
loss dominates the efficiency loss at medium to high load
currents. In a typical efficiency plot, the efficiency curve at
very low load currents can be misleading since the actual
power lost is of no consequence as illustrated in Figure 3.
1. The V
IN
quiescent current is due to two components:
the DC bias current as given in the electrical character-
istics and the internal main switch and synchronous
switch gate charge currents. The gate charge current
results from switching the gate capacitance of the
internal power MOSFET switches. Each time the gate is
switched from high to low to high again, a packet of
charge, dQ, moves from V
IN
to ground. The resulting
dQ/dt is the current out of V
IN
that is typically larger than
the DC bias current. In continuous mode,
I
GATECHG
= f(Q
T
+ Q
B
) where Q
T
and Q
B
are the
gate charges of the internal top and bottom
switches. Both the DC bias and gate charge
losses are proportional to V
IN
and thus their effects will
be more pronounced at higher supply voltages.
2. I
2
R losses are calculated from the resistances of the
internal switches, R
SW
, and external inductor R
L
. In
continuous mode, the average output current flowing
through inductor L is “chopped” between the main
switch and the synchronous switch. Thus, the series
resistance looking into the SW pin is a function of both
top and bottom MOSFET R
DS(ON)
and the duty cycle
(DC) as follows:
R
SW
= (R
DS(ON)TOP
)(DC) + (R
DS(ON)BOT
)(1 – DC)
The R
DS(ON)
for both the top and bottom MOSFETs can
be obtained from the Typical Performance Charateristics
curves. Thus, to obtain I
2
R losses, simply add R
SW
to
R
L
and multiply the result by the square of the average
output current.
Other losses including C
IN
and C
OUT
ESR dissipative
losses and inductor core losses generally account for less
than 2% total additional loss.
Thermal Considerations
In most applications the LTC3410 does not dissipate
much heat due to its high efficiency. But, in applications
where the LTC3410 is running at high ambient
temperature with low supply voltage and high duty
cycles, such as in dropout, the heat dissipated may
exceed the maximum junction temperature of the part. If
Figure 3. Power Loss vs Load Current
LOAD CURRENT (mA)
0.1 1
0.00001
POWER LOSS (W)
0.001
1
10 100 1000
3410 F03
0.0001
0.01
0.1
V
IN
= 3.6V
V
OUT
= 3.3V
V
OUT
= 1.8V
V
OUT
= 1.2V