9

LTC1772B

Setting Output Voltage

The regulated output voltage is determined by:

V

R

R









08 1

2

1

.

For most applications, an 80k resistor is suggested for R1.

To prevent stray pickup, locate resistors R1 and R2 close

to LTC1772B.

electrical characteristics, that excludes MOSFET driver

2. MOSFET gate charge current results from switching

the gate capacitance of the power MOSFET. Each time

a MOSFET gate is switched from low to high to low

typically much larger than the DC supply current. In

MOSFET, inductor and current shunt. In continuous

mode the average output current flows through L but

is “chopped” between the P-channel MOSFET (in se-

4. The output diode is a major source of power loss at

high currents and gets worse at high input voltages.

The diode loss is calculated by multiplying the forward

voltage times the diode duty cycle multiplied by the

load current. For example, assuming a duty cycle of

50% with a Schottky diode forward voltage drop of

0.4V, the loss increases from 0.5% to 8% as the load

current increases from 0.5A to 2A.

5. Transition losses apply to the external MOSFET and

increase at higher operating frequencies and input

voltages. Transition losses can be estimated from:

losses, and inductor core losses, generally account for

less than 2% total additional loss.

Figure 5. Setting Output Voltage

3

LTC1772B

R1

1772 F04

R2

Efficiency Considerations

The efficiency of a switching regulator is equal to the

output power divided by the input power times 100%. It is

often useful to analyze individual losses to determine what

is limiting the efficiency and which change would produce

the most improvement. Efficiency can be expressed as:

Efficiency = 100% – (

η1 + η2 + η3 + ...)

where

η1, η2, etc. are the individual losses as a percent-

age of input power.

Although all dissipative elements in the circuit produce

losses, four main sources usually account for most of the

losses in LTC1772B circuits: 1) LTC1772B DC bias cur-

voltage drop of the output diode.