High-efficiency highly-integrated 3A / 8A synchronous buck regulator quintet

Intersil has introduced five new highly-integrated synchronous buck regulators that step-down 5V rails to point-of-load (POL) inputs as low as 0.6V for FPGAs, DSPs and microprocessors. The feature-rich ISL8018 delivers up to 8A of continuous output current from a 2.7V to 5.5V input supply, while offering up to 97% efficiency and higher integration than competitive devices. The 2 x 2mm ISL8003x family of devices delivers up to 3A of continuous output current from a 2.7V to 5.5V input supply and offers up to 95% peak efficiency for delivering general POL conversions in telecom, cloud computing, industrial, instrumentation and medical equipment. The ISL8018 provides an innovative SYNCIN and SYNCOUT feature that connects and synchronizes multiple regulators at the same switching frequency in a master/slave configuration using a phase shifting time delay. This prevents ON time overlapping and reduces RMS current, ripple and input capacitance requirements to improve EMI and efficiency. With the ISL8018’s VSET feature, the voltage output margining can be set at +/- 10% to compensate for output voltage IR drop. The ISET feature provides programmable output current limits to support 8A, 5A and 3A applications. This allows customers to leverage one design with smaller inductors for reduced costs and board area. In addition, the ISL8018’s programmable switching frequency from 500kHz up to 4MHz enables the use of smaller passive components for faster transient response and further board space savings. The ISL80030, ISL80030A, ISL80031, and ISL80031A are pin-compatible and integrate very low RDS(ON) high-side PMOS and low-side NMOS MOSFETs, which reduces external component count and power losses. With lower die temperatures, these buck regulators allow the system to operate without cooling fans or heatsinks and still deliver a continuous 3A to the load, significantly increasing reliability. They also offer internal compensation, which eliminates additional external components to reduce design complexity. The complete converter occupies less than 64mm2 of board space. And the ISL80031 and ISL80031A offer a light load mode to improve efficiency over all load currents when the system switches to a low power state, says the company. “As the number of voltage rails increases and design complexity continues to grow, power supply designers need switching regulators that deliver high efficiency, fast transient response and are simple to use,” said Mark Downing, senior vice president, infrastructure and industrial power products, Intersil. “The new 8A and 3A synchronous buck regulators give our customers the right set of features and flexibility in a compact solution size as small as 2mm x 2mm required for point-of-load applications.”