
AOZ3015PI
Rev. 2.0 July 2013 www.aosmd.com Page 6 of 13
Detailed Description
The AOZ3015PI is a current-mode step down regulator
with an integrated high-side PMOS switch and a low-side
NMOS switch. The AOZ3015PI operates from a 4.5 V to
18 V input voltage range and supplies up to 3 A of load
current. Features include enable control, power-on reset,
input under voltage lockout, output over voltage
protection, internal soft-start and thermal shut down.
The AOZ3015PI is available in an exposed pad SO-8
package.
Enable and Soft Start
The AOZ3015PI has an internal soft-start feature to limit
in-rush current and ensure the output voltage ramps up
smoothly to regulation voltage. The soft start process
begins when the input voltage rises to 4 V and voltage on
the EN pin is HIGH. In the soft start process, the
output voltage is typically ramped to regulation voltage in
5 ms. The 5 ms soft-start pin time is set internally.
The EN pin of the AOZ3015PI is active high. Connect the
EN pin to VIN if the enable function is not used. Pulling
EN to ground will disable the AOZ3015PI. Do not leave
EN open. The voltage on the EN pin must be above 2 V
to enable the AOZ3015PI. When the EN pin voltage falls
below 0.6 V, the AOZ3015PI is disabled.
Light Load and PWM Operation
Under low output current settings, the AOZ3015PI will
operate with pulse energy mode to obtain high efficiency.
In pulse energy mode, the PWM will not turn off until the
inductor current reaches to 800 mA and the current
signal exceeds the error voltage.
Steady-State Operation
Under heavy load steady-state conditions, the converter
operates in fixed frequency and Continuous-Conduction
Mode (CCM).
The AOZ3015PI integrates an internal P-MOSFET as the
high-side switch. Inductor current is sensed by amplifying
the voltage drop across the drain to source of the high
side power MOSFET. Output voltage is divided down by
the external voltage divider at the FB pin. The difference
of the FB pin voltage and reference voltage is amplified
by the internal transconductance error amplifier. The
error voltage, which shows on the COMP pin, is
compared against the current signal, which is the sum of
inductor current signal and ramp compensation signal, at
the PWM comparator input. If the current signal is less
than the error voltage, the internal high-side switch is on.
The inductor current flows from the input through the
inductor to the output. When the current signal exceeds
the error voltage, the high-side switch is off. The inductor
current is freewheeling through the internal low-side
N-MOSFET switch to output. The internal adaptive FET
driver guarantees no turn on overlap of both the
high-side and the low-side switch.
Compared with regulators using freewheeling Schottky
diodes, the AOZ3015PI uses a freewheeling NMOSFET
to realize synchronous rectification. This greatly
improves the converter efficiency and reduces power
loss in the low-side switch.
The AOZ3015PI uses a P-Channel MOSFET as the
high-side switch. This saves the bootstrap capacitor
normally seen in a circuit using an NMOS switch.
Output Voltage Programming
Output voltage can be set by feeding back the output to
the FB pin using a resistor divider network as shown in
Figure 1. The resistor divider network includes R1 and
R2. Usually, a design is started by picking a fixed R2
value and calculating the required R1 with the equation
below:
Some standard value of R1 and R2 for the most common
output voltages are listed in Table 1.
Table 1.
The combination of R1 and R2 should be large enough to
avoid drawing excessive current from the output, which
will cause power loss.
VO (V) R1 (kΩ) R2 (kΩ)
0.8 1.0 Open
1.2 4.99 10
1.5 10 11.5
1.8 12.7 10.2
2.5 21.5 10
3.3 31.1 10
5.0 52.3 10
VO0.8 1 R1
R2
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