High Voltage Step-Down Controller Optimize Intermediate Bus Efficiency

Hellmuth Witte, Design Engineer, Power Products

The LTC®3886(http://www.linear.com/product/LTC3886) is a High Voltage dual, PolyPhase DC/DC synchronous step-down switching regulator controller with PMBus compliant serial interface. It uses a constant frequency, current mode architecture with programmable loop compensation for excellent transient response and output regulation. Each PWM channel can produce output voltages from 0.5V to 13.2V and has a maximum input of 60V. Up to three LTC3886s can operate in parallel for 2-, 3-, 4-, or 6-phase operation.

LTC3886 system configuration and monitoring is supported by the LTpowerPlay™ software tool. The device’s serial interface can be used to read back input voltage, output voltage and current, temperature and fault status. A wide range of operating parameters can be set via the digital interface or stored in internal EEPROM for autonomous operation. Switching frequency and phase, output voltage and device address can also be programmed using external configuration resistors.