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TI Announces Family of 800 mA DC/DC Converters to Help Extend Battery Life in Portable, Bluetooth-Enabled Applications

New Step-Down Converters Provide 95 Percent Power Efficiency

The manufacturer says . . .

ChipCenter's Paul O'Shea says . . .

Designers of portable battery-powered devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDA), smartphones and other Bluetooth-enabled equipment, can increase operating time by integrating new low-power, DC/DC step-down converters announced today from Texas Instruments (TI) (NYSE: TXN). Designed to provide up to 95 percent power conversion efficiency, the family of synchronous converters offers designers a wide input voltage range from 2.7V to 10V, output current of up to 800mA, and a low 12ıA of quiescent current for longer stand-by time - perfect for electronic devices that use one- to two-cell lithium-ion (Li-Ion) or two- to six-cell nickel metal hydride (NiMH), nickel cadium (NiCd) or Alkaline batteries. The TPS6205x family of low-power step-down converters with integrated field effect transistors (FETs), allows portable application designers to reduce both board space and system cost. The converters also can generate output voltages ranging from 0.7V to 6V, which makes the TPS6205x series well suited to operate with TI's OMAP application processors, microprocessors and digital signal processors (DSPs) that have low core voltage requirements. "As the level of functionality increases with each new generation of portable electronics that roll out to consumers, designers require innovative power management technology to help achieve longer battery life in addition to functionality," said Patrick Heyer, product marketing manager, TI's portable power management group. "With today's announcement, TI makes it easier for designers to include DC/DC converters in their portable designs that are the industry's best combination of extended input voltage range, high output current, high efficiency and low quiescent current." The TPS6205x family of converters typically operates at 850 kHz and can be synchronized to external clock frequencies from 600 kHz to 1.2 MHz. In shutdown mode, the current consumption is reduced to less than 2uA. Additional Features - Fixed Voltage Options: 1.5V, 1.8V and 3.3V - Pulse Frequency Modulation (PFM)/Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Mode for High Efficiency Over Wide Load Current Range - 100 Percent Maximum Duty Cycle for Lowest Drop-out - Low Noise Operation in Forced Fixed Frequency PWM Operation Mode - -40ıC to 85ıC Range - Over-Temperature and Over-Current Protected - Power Good and Low-Battery Detect Texas Instruments Incorporated Semiconductor, Group, SC-02296, Literature Response Center, P.O. Box 954, Santa Clarita, CA 91380. Tel: 1-800-477-8924, ext. 4500 TI Web Site

TI says that this converter resulted from listening to customer requests for a converter that could accommodate a variety of portable video and audio products, such as the portable DVD player. These customers said they needed a little more output current because of the advanced processors and the onboard drives. TI decided that they must develop something that would solve that power problem, while also fitting with the rest of the solution in keeping the quiescent current low and by providing the output voltages of 1.5 V, 1.8 V and even sub 1 V, necessary for some advanced processors. These new portable products also needed to maximize the runtime of the product by offering a shutdown mode. None of these ideas by themselves are unique, what is important is the number of features TI managed to roll into one package. The TPS6205x offers 12 uA quiescent current compared to other converters that have closer to 100 uA. Another specification would be the input voltage range of the device - TI bumped it up from the traditional 6 or 7 volts to 10 volts, primarily to meet the needs of customers that use 9-volt wall adapters. The company will do well selling this family of converters to a wide range of customers, from those that use these 9-V wall warts for PDAs, digital cameras or even hard disk drives. This converter is easy to implement in a design because TI has integrated the N-channel and P-channel MOSFETs and that will allow synchronous rectification and also increase efficiency while reducing the component count. It uses an 850 kHz switching frequency that allows the designer to use a smaller inductor than those required by a slower converter. Additionally, the TPS6205x can change from pulse frequency modulation to pulse-width modulation when loads change from low to high and vice versa. It does this by sensing the load so when it moves to a light load it changes from a PWM to a PSM mode. Probably the most important point about this family of converters is that it offers a lot of functions that designers want for high-end portable devices. It will be important for devices that care about run time, need a shutdown mode, and need the flexibility of a higher input voltage range. The wide input voltage range also gives engineers flexibility when they are unsure which battery technology and voltage they will be using. The company makes the converters in a fixed voltage and an adjustable voltage version, each type will find a niche market. The TPS6205x devices are available today in volume from TI and its authorized distributors. The device comes in a 10-pin micro-small outline package (MSOP). Suggested resale pricing in quantities of 1,000 is $1.74. Evaluation modules of the TPS6205x are scheduled to be available in first quarter of 2003. Product Folder Data Sheet

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