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UCD7100
SLUS651A – MARCH 2005 – REVISED MAY 2005
With V
DD
= 12 V, C
LOAD
= 10 nF, and f = 300 kHz, the
power loss can be calculated as:
The useful range of a driver is greatly affected by the
drive power requirements of the load and the thermal
characteristics of the device package. In order for a
With a 12-V supply, this would equate to a current of:
power driver to be useful over a particular temperature range the package must allow for the efficient
removal of the heat produced while keeping the
junction temperature within rated limits. The UCD7K
The actual current measured from the supply was
family of drivers is available in PowerPAD™ TSSOP
0.037 A, and is very close to the predicted value. But,
and QFN/DFN packages to cover a range of appli-
the I
DD
current that is due to the device internal
cation requirements. Both have the exposed pads to
consumption should be considered. With no load the
relieve thermal dissipation from the semiconductor
device current drawn is 0.0027 A. Under this con-
junction.
dition the output rise and fall times are faster than
with a load. This could lead to an almost insignificant,
As illustrated in Reference [2], the PowerPAD™
yet measurable current due to cross-conduction in the
packages offer a leadframe die pad that is exposed at
output stages of the driver. However, these small
the base of the package. This pad is soldered to the
current differences are buried in the high frequency
copper on the PC board (PCB) directly underneath
switching spikes, and are beyond the measurement
the device package, reducing the Θ
JC
down to
capabilities of a basic lab setup. The measured
4.7 ° C/W. The PC board must be designed with
current with 10-nF load is close to the value ex-
thermal lands and thermal vias to complete the heat
pected.
removal subsystem, as summarized in Reference [3].
The switching load presented by a power MOSFET
Note that the PowerPAD™ is not directly connected
can be converted to an equivalent capacitance by
to any leads of the package. However, it is electrically
examining the gate charge required to switch the
and thermally connected to the substrate which is the
device. This gate charge includes the effects of the
ground of the device.
input capacitance plus the added charge needed to
swing the drain of the device between the ON and
OFF states. Most manufacturers provide specifi-
In a power driver operating at high frequency, it is a
cations that provide the typical and maximum gate
significant challenge to get clean waveforms without
charge, in nC, to switch the device under specified
much overshoot/undershoot and ringing. The low
conditions. Using the gate charge Q
G
, one can
output impedance of these drivers produces
determine the power that must be dissipated when
waveforms with high di/dt. This tends to induce
charging a capacitor. This is done by using the
ringing in the parasitic inductances. Utmost care must
equivalence Q
G
= C
EFF
x V to provide the following
be used in the circuit layout. It is advantageous to
equation for power:
connect the driver IC as close as possible to the
leads. The driver device layout has the analog ground
on the opposite side of the output, so the ground
This equation allows a power designer to calculate
should be connected to the bypass capacitors and
the bias power required to drive a specific MOSFET
the load with copper trace as wide as possible. These
gate at a specific bias voltage.
connections should also be made with a small enclosed loop area to minimize the inductance.
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