Expanding its power management portfolio, Microchip Technology announced today two new regulated charge pump DC-to-DC converters. The MCP1252 and MCP1253, 120mA regulated charge pump devices, give users a space-saving, power management product that accomplish DC-to-DC conversions in a battery-operated environment without the need of an inductor. These devices require less external components than many other charge pump devices and unlike switching regulators, do not require an inductor. From a 2.7 through 5.5 V input source, theses devices provide either a fixed 3.3Vor 5.0V output or an adjustable output voltage of 1.5V to 5.5V. In addition, these devices have a low drain current of 60ưA and a shutdown current of 0.1ưA. Both offer a power-good output that can detect an out-of-regulation situation with an output voltage accuracy of +/- 2.5 percent maximum, 0.5 percent typical. Unlike low-dropout (LDO) regulators, these devices offer a DC-to-DC conversion method that automatically operates in buck and boost modes, meaning that the input voltage can either be higher or lower than the output voltage. These features, combined with their ability to efficiently convert various energy sources to required voltage/current levels, makes them ideal candidates for DC-to-DC conversions in compact battery-operated systems such as cell phones, PDAs, MP3 players, pagers, hand-held meters and wireless controllers such as game joy-sticks. "Voltage converters generate desired voltage levels from sources such as a common DC-bus or a battery. Often, charge pumps are the best choice for applications requiring a combination of simple, low power and low cost solution options," said Jim Mack, product marketing manager for Microchip's Analog and Interface Products Division. "Microchip has many solutions for applications requiring low-power consumption, and we have been broadening our system solutions to meet our customers' design needs." Choosing between the operating frequencies of 650kHz for the MCP1252 or 1.0MHz for the MCP1253 enables the user to either minimize the external component size with the higher frequency device or to avoid critical system frequencies with the lower frequency device. In addition, the devices offer internal thermal and short-circuit protection. The MCP1252 and MCP1253 are available in 8-pin MSOP packages and are specified over a temperature range of -40º to +85ºC. Pricing in 1,000-unit quantities for the MCP1252 and MCP1253 is $1.61 each. Samples and volume production are scheduled for December 2002. For more information on these new devices, contact any Microchip sales representative or authorized worldwide distributor or visit www.microchip.com.

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