
ADP1148, ADP1148-3.3, ADP1148-5
–7–
REV. A
APPLIC AT IONS
T he ADP1148 uses a current-mode, constant off-time structure
to switch a pair of external complementary N- and P-channel
MOSFET s. T he operating frequency of the device is deter-
mined by the value of the external capacitor connected to the
C
T
pin.
T he output voltage is sensed by an internal voltage divider which is
connected to the Sense(–) pin (ADP1148-3.3 and AD1148-5) or
an external voltage divider returned to V
FB
(ADP1148). A voltage
comparator V, and a gain block G compare the values of the
divided output voltage with a reference voltage of 1.25 V.
T o maximize the efficiency, the ADP1148 automatically switches
between two operational modes, power-saving and continuous.
T he Flip-Flop 1 is the main control element when the device is
in its power-saving mode while the gain block is the main con-
trol when the output voltage moves to continuous mode. During
the continuous mode of the PMOS switch on-cycle, the current
comparator C, monitors the voltage between Sense(–) and
Sense(+). When the voltage level reaches the threshold level, the
P drive output is switched to V
IN
which turns off the P-channel
MOSFET . T he timing capacitor C
T
is now able to discharge at
a rate determined by the off-time controller. T he discharge
current is made to be proportional to the value of the output
voltage (measured at the Sense(–) pin) to model the inductor
current which decays at a rate which is proportional to the out-
put voltage. While the timing capacitor is discharging, the N
drive output goes to V
IN
, turning on the N-channel MOSFET .
When the voltage level on the timing capacitor has discharged to
the threshold voltage level V
T H1
, comparator T switches setting
Flip-Flop 1. T his forces the N drive to go off and the P drive
output low and subsequently turns the P-channel MOSFET on.
T he sequence is then repeated. As load current increases, the
output voltage starts to reduce. T his results in the output of the
gain circuit increasing the level of the current comparator thresh-
old, thus tracking the load current.
At very low load currents the power-saving sequence will be
interrupted by the Set of Flip-Flop 2, by voltage comparator B,
which also monitors the voltage across R
SENSE
. When the load
current decreases to half the designed inductor ripple current,
the voltage across R
SENSE
will reverse polarity. When this hap-
pens, comparator B will set the Q-bar output of Flip-Flop 2,
which will go to logic zero state and interrupt the cycle-by-cycle
operation and inhibit the output FET -driver. T he output of the
power supply storage capacitor will slowly be drained by the
load and the output voltage starts decreasing. When this
decreased voltage exceeds the V
OS
of comparator V, this in turn
will reset Flip-Flop 2, and normal cycle-by-cycle operation will
resume. If the load is very small, it will take a long time for Flip-
Flop 2 to reset, and during that time the oscillator capacitor
may discharge below V
T H2
. At the point at which the timing
capacitor discharges below V
T H2
, comparator S trips causing the
internal sleep-bar to go low. T he circuit is now in sleep mode
and the N-channel Power MOSFET remains turned off. While
the circuit remains in this mode, a significant amount of the
circuit of the IC is turned off dropping the ground current from
approximately 1.6 mA to a level of 160
μ
A. In this state the load
current is supplied by the output capacitor. T he sleep mode is
also terminated by the reset of Flip-Flop 2.
T o prevent both the external MOSFET s from ever being turned
on simultaneously, feedback is incorporated to sense the state of
the driver output pins.
Before the N drive output can go high, the P drive output must
also be high. Likewise, the P drive output is unable to go low
while the N drive output is high. By utilizing a constant off-time
structure, the device operation is a function of the input voltage.
T o limit the effect of frequency variation as the device approaches
dropout, the controller begins to increase the discharge current
as V
IN
drops below V
OUT
+1.5 V. While the device is in drop-
out, the P-channel MOSFET is on constantly.
R
SE NSE
Selection For Output Current
T he choice of R
SENSE
is based on the required output current.
T he ADP1148 current comparator has a threshold range which
extends from 0 mV to a maximum of 150 mV/R
SENSE
. T he
current comparator threshold sets the peak of the inductor cur-
rent, yielding a maximum output current I
MAX
equal to the peak
value less half the peak-to-peak ripple current. T he ADP1148
operates effectively with values of R
SENSE
from 20 m
to
200 m
. A graph for selecting R
SENSE
versus maximum output
current is given in Figure 3. Solving for R
SENSE
and allowing a
margin for variations in the ADP1148 and external component
values yields:
R
SENSE
= 100
mV
/
I
MAX
T he peak short circuit current, (I
SC(PK )
) tracks I
MAX
. Once
R
SENSE
has been chosen, I
SC(PK )
can be predicted from the fol-
lowing equation:
I
SC(PK)
= 150
mV
/
R
SENSE
T he load current, below which power-saving mode commences
(I
POWER-SAVING
) is determined by the offset in comparator B and
the value of the inductor chosen. Comparator B is designed to
have approximately 5 mV offset. T his offset and the inductor
can now be used to predict the power saving mode current as
follows:
I
POWER-SAVING
~ 5
mV
/
R
SENSE
+
V
O
×
t
OFF
/2
L
T he ADP1148 automatically extends t
OFF
during a short circuit
to provide adequate time for the inductor current to decay be-
tween switch cycles. T he resulting ripple current causes the
average short circuit current, I
SC(AVG)
, to be lowered to approxi-
mately I
MAX
.
L and C
T
Selection for Operating Frequency
T he ADP1148 uses a constant off-time architecture with t
OFF
determined by an external timing capacitor C
T
. Each time the
P-channel MOSFET switch turns on, the voltage on C
T
is reset
to approximately 3.3 V. During the off time, C
T
is discharged by
a current which is proportional to V
OUT
. T he voltage on C
T
is
analogous to the current in inductor L , which likewise decays at
a rate proportional to V
OUT
. T herefore, the inductor value must
track the timing capacitor value.
T he value of C
T
is calculated from the preferred continuous
mode operating frequency:
C
T
= 1/2.6
×
10
4
×
f
Assumes V
IN
= 2 V
OUT
(Figure 1 circuit).
A graph for selecting C
T
versus frequency including the effects
of input voltage is given in Figure 5.
*Component, voltage, current, etc., values are in SI-units (international standard)
unless otherwise indicated.