New family of automotive-grade buck regulator ICs target tomorrow's systems

The new A8590 buck regulator from Allegro MicroSystems Europe is the latest addition to the company’s industry-leading family of automotive-grade AEC-Q100 qualified regulator ICs. The device is designed to provide the power-supply requirements of next-generation car audio and infotainment systems, and provides all the control and protection circuitry for a 3 A regulator which will withstand the rigours of a wide automotive battery input voltage range. The A8590 can also be used in cluster and centre stack applications and in advanced driving assistance systems. The A8590 employs pulse frequency modulation to draw less than 50µA from a 12V input while supplying a 3.3V / 40µA output. After start-up, the A8590 operates down to an input voltage (falling) of at least 3.6V, and maintains ±1% output voltage accuracy. Other features of the A8590 include PWM/PFM mode control and the ability to synchronise PWM frequency to an external clock. It also has a 'sleep' pin for an ultra-low current shutdown mode. The device has external compensation to accommodate a wide range of frequencies and external components, and provides a power-on reset signal validated by the output voltage. Extensive protection features include pulse-by-pulse current limit, 'hiccup mode' short-circuit protection, open / short asynchronous diode protection, boot open / short voltage protection, input-voltage under-voltage lockout, output-voltage over-voltage protection, and thermal shutdown.