TPA1517
6-W STEREO AUDIO POWER AMPLIFIER
SLOS162B – MARCH 1997 – REVISED MARCH 2000
14
POST OFFICE BOX 655303 • DALLAS, TEXAS 75265
APPLICATION INFORMATION
component selection
Some of the general concerns for selection of capacitors are:
D
Leakage currents on aluminum electrolytic capacitors
D
ESR (equivalent series resistance)
D
Temperature ratings
leakage currents
Leakage currents on most ceramic, polystyrene, and paper capacitors are negligible for this application.
Leakage currents for aluminum electrolytic and tantalum tend to be higher. This is especially important on the
input terminals and the SVRR capacitor. These nodes encounter from 3 V to 7 V, and need to have leakage
currents less than 1 µA to keep from affecting the output power and noise performance.
equivalent series resistance
ESR is mainly important on the output coupling capacitor , where even 1 Ω of ESR in C
O
with an 8-Ω speaker
can reduce the output drive power by 12.5%. ESR should be considered across the frequency range of interest,
(i.e., 20 Hz to 20 kHz). The following equation calculates the amount of power lost in the coupling capacitor:
% Power in C
O
+
ESR
R
L
In general, the power supply decoupling requires a very low ESR as well to take advantage of the full output
drive current.
temperature range
The temperature range of the capacitors may or may not seem like an obvious thing to specify, but it is very
important. Many of the high-density capacitors perform very differently at different temperatures. When
consistent high performance is required from the system over temperature in terms of low THD, maximum
output power, and turn-on/off popping, then interactions of the coupling capacitors and the SVRR capacitors
need to be considered, as well as the change in ESR on the output capacitor with temperature.
turn-on pop consideration
To select the proper input coupling capacitor, the designer should select a capacitor large enough to allow the
lowest desired frequency pass and small enough that the time constant is shorter than the output RC time
constant to minimize turn-on popping. The input time constant for the TPA1517 is determined by the input
60-kΩ resistance of the amplifier, and the input coupling capacitor according to the following generic equation:
TC+
1
2pRC
For example, 8-Ω speakers and 220-µF output coupling capacitors would yield a 90-Hz cut-off point for the
output RC network. The input network should be the same speed or faster ( > 90 Hz TC). A good choice would
be 180 Hz. As the input resistance is 60 kΩ, a 14-nF input coupling capacitor would do.
The bypass-capacitor time constant should be much larger (×5) than either the input coupling capacitor time
constant or the output coupling capacitor time constants. In the previous example with the 220-µF output
coupling capacitor, the designer should want the bypass capacitor, T
C
, to be in the order of 18 Hz or lower. To
get an 18-Hz time constant, CB is required to be 1 µF or larger because the resistance this capacitor sees is
7.5 kΩ.