M
High-S peed, Digitally Adjusted
S tep-Down Controllers for Notebook CPUs
22
______________________________________________________________________________________
I
LIM
V
CC
V
IN
4.5V TO5.5V
TOREMOTE
LOAD
L1
0.5
μ
H
V
OUT
1.6V AT 7A
C2
3 x 470
μ
F
KEMET
T510
SHDN
D0
1
μ
F
0.1
μ
F
0.22
μ
F
470pF
IRF7805
IRF7805
1
μ
F
20
C1
4 x 10
μ
F/25V
D1
D2
D/A
INPUTS
ON/OFF
DL
LX
BST
DH
PGND
FB
1k
1k
GND
GNDS
FBS
V
DD
V
CC
V+
MAX1710
MAX1711
D4**
D3
REF
CC
TON
SKIP
OVP*
100k
PGOOD
* MAX1710 ONLY
** MAX1711 ONLY
Figure 9. 5V-Powered, 7A CPU Buck Regulator
where V
FB
is the currently selected DAC value. When
using external resistors, FBS remote sensing is not rec-
ommended, but GNDS remote sensing is still possible.
Connect FBS to FB and GNDS to remote ground loca-
tion. In resistor-adjusted circuits, the DAC code should
be set as close as possible to the actual output voltage
so that the switching frequency doesn’t become exces-
sive. For highest accuracy, use the MAX1710 when
adjusting V
OUT
with external resistors. The MAX1710 FB
node has very high impedance, while the MAX1711 has
a 180k
±35% FB impedance, which degrades V
OUT
accuracy.
Adjusting V
OUT
Above 2V
The feed-forward circuit that makes the on-time depen-
dent on battery voltage maintains a nearly constant
switching frequency as V
IN
, I
LOAD
, and the DAC code
are changed. This works extremely well as long as FB is
connected directly to the output.
When the output is adjusted higher than 2V with a resis-
tor-divider, the switching frequency can be increased to
relatively unreasonable levels as the actual off-time
decreases and isn’t compensated for by a change in on-
time. 3.3V is about the maximum limit to the practical
adjustment range; even at the slowest TON setting and
with the DAC set to 2V, the switching rate will exceed
600kHz.
The trip threshold for output overvoltage protection
scales with the nominal output voltage setting.
2-Stage (5V-Powered) Notebook CPU
Buck Regulator
The most efficient and overall cost-effective solution for
stepping down a high-voltage battery to very low output
voltage is to use a single-stage buck regulator that’s
powered directly from the battery. However, there may
be situations where the battery bus can’t be routed near
the CPU, or where space constraints dictate the smallest
possible local DC-DC converter. In such cases, the 5V-
powered circuit of Figure 9 may be appropriate. The
reduced input voltage allows a higher switching frequen-
cy and a much smaller inductor value.