DEPA buck controller regulates up to 16V power output

Article By : EE Times Asia

The MCP19123 buck controller offers a programmable differential input amplifier used to optimise performance and minimise system voltage error, according to Microchip.

Microchip has introduced a new digitally enhanced power analog (DEPA) buck controller for DC-DC power conversion, capable of accepting up to 42V input while simultaneously regulating 0.3V to 16V output range without any external components or drivers.

The internal PIC microcontroller in the MCP19122/3 can dynamically adjust the operating frequency, over- and under-voltage lockout thresholds, current limits, soft-start, voltage or current output set points and maximum duty cycle, according to the company.

The MCP19123 buck controller offers a programmable differential input amplifier used to optimise performance and minimise system voltage error. This configurability allows for a wide output voltage range commonly seen in USB power and battery charger applications. To improving integration in larger systems, the device can synchronise to an external clock and voltage reference or provide the internal system clock and reference to other devices for synchronisation.

In server or communications equipment, this allows for seamless power up and accurate tracking of power consumption throughout the board. For high-power applications, multiple outputs can operate in parallel providing system redundancy for improved system reliability.

The device also offers accurate adjustable output power supply. A MCP19122/3 DC-DC converter implementation can maintain an initial 0.5% or better output voltage accuracy. In addition to the tight voltage regulation, the MCP19122/3 is designed to deliver current measurement by using a lossless inductor current sense method with specialised internal measurement calibrations, according to Microchip. The device can directly accept a common mode signal up to 16V and report the load current to within 5% accuracy for most applications, with an emulated average current mode control for hardware-based cycle-by-cycle current limiting.

Figure 1: MCP19123 block diagram (Source: Microchip)

The MCP19122 is available today in a 4 x 4 QFN package for sampling and in volume production in 10,000 unit quantities, while the MCP19123 is available in a 5 x 5 QFN package in 10,000 unit quantities.