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POWER MANAGEMENT
SC1405B
While components connecting to C-Delay, OVP_S, EN,S-
MOD, DSPS_DR and PRDY are relatively non-critical, tight
placement and short,wide traces must be used in layout
of The Drives, DRN, and especially PGND pin. The top
gate driver supply voltage is provided by bootstrapping
the +5V supply and adding it the phase node voltage
(DRN). Since the bootstrap capacitor supplies the charge
to the TOP gate, it must be less than .5 away from the
SC1405. Ceramic X7R capacitors are a good choice for
supply bypassing near the chip. The Vcc pin capacitor
must also be less than .5 away from the SC1405. The
ground node of this capacitor, the SC1405 PGND pin
and the Source of the bottom FET must be very close to
each other, preferably with common PCB copper land
and multiple vias to the ground plane (if used). The par-
allel Shottkey must be physically next to the Bottom FETS
Drain and source. Any trace or lead inductance in these
connections will drive current way from the Shottkey and
allow it to flow through the FETs Body diode, thus reduc-
ing efficiency.
Preventing Inadvertent Bottom FET Turn-on
At high input voltages, (12V and greater) a fast turn-on
of the top FET creates a positive going spike on the Bot-
tom FETs gate through the Miller capacitance, Crss of
the bottom FET. The voltage appearing on the gate due
to this spike is:
Vspike= Vin*crss
(Crass+ciss)
Where Ciss is the input gate capacitance of the bottom
FET. This is assuming that the impedance of the drive
path is too high compared to the instantaneous imped-
ance of the capacitors. (since dV/dT and thus the effec-
tive frequency is very high). If the BG pin of the SC1405B
is very close to the bottom FET, Vspike will be reduced
depending on trace inductance, rate if rise of current,etc.
While not shown in Figure 4, a capacitor may be added
from the gate of the Bottom FET to its source, preferably
less than .5 away. This capacitor will be added to Ciss
in the above equation to reduce the effective spike volt-
age, Vspike.
The selection of the bottom MOSFET must be done with
attention paid to the Crss/Ciss ratio. A low ratio reduces
Applications Information
the Miller feedback and thus reduces Vspike. Also
MOSFETs with higher Turn-on threshold voltages will con-
duct at a higher voltage and will not turn on during the
spike. The MOSFET shown in the schematic (figure 4)
has a 2 volt threshold and will require approximately 5
volts Vgs to be conducting, thus reducing the possibility
of shoot-through. A zero ohm bottom FET gate resistor
will obviously help keeping the gate voltage low.
Ultimately, slowing down the top FET by adding gate re-
sistance will reduce di/dt which will in turn make the ef-
fective impedance of the capacitors higher, thus allow-
ing the BG driver to hold the bottom gate voltage low.
Ringing on the Phase Node
The top MOSFET source must be close to the bottom
MOSFET drain to prevent ringing and the possibility of
the phase node going negative. This frequency is deter-
mined by:
1
Fring = (2 Õ* Sqrt(Lst*Coss))
Where:
Lst = The effective stray inductance of the top FET added
to trace inductance of the connection between top FETs
source and the bottom FETs drain added to the trace
resistance of the bottom FETs ground connection.
Coss=Drain to source capacitance of bottom FET. If there
is a Shottkey used, the capacitance of the Shottkey is
added to the value.
Although this ringing does not pose any power losses
due to a fairly high Q, it could cause the phase node to
go too far negative, thus causing improper operation,
double pulsing or at worst driver damage. This ringing is
also an EMI nuisance due to its high resonant frequency.
Adding a capacitor, typically 1000-2000pf, in parallel with
Coss can often eliminate the EMI issue. If double puls-
ing is caused due to excessive ringing, placing 4.7-10
ohm resistor between the phase node and the DRN pin
of the SC1405 should eliminate the double pulsing.
Proper layout will guarantee minimum ringing and elimi-
nate the need for external components. Use of SO8 or
other surface mount MOSFETs will reduce lead induc-
tance and their parasitic effects.