APPLICATION INFORMATION
Supply
Current Sensing and Protection
Reference / External Bias Supply
Input
UCD7100
SLUS651A – MARCH 2005 – REVISED MAY 2005
The UCD7100 is part of a family of digital compatible If limiting the rise or fall times to the power device is
drivers targeting applications utilizing digital control desired, then an external resistance can be added
techniques or applications that require local fast peak between the output of the driver and the load device,
current limit protection. which is generally a power MOSFET gate. The
external resistor may also help remove power dissipation from the package.
The UCD7K devices accept an input range of 4.5 V
to 15 V. The device has an internal precision linear
regulator that produces the 3V3 output from this VDD A very fast current limit comparator connected to the
input. A separate pin, PVDD, not connected internally CS pin is used to protect the power stage by
to the VDD supply rail provides power for the output implementing cycle-by-cycle current limiting.
drivers. In all applications the same bus voltage
The current limit threshold is equal to the lesser of
supplies the two pins. It is recommended that a low
the positive inputs at the current limit comparator.
value of resistance be placed between the two pins
The current limit threshold can be set to any value
so that the local capacitance on each pin forms low
between 0.25 V and 1.0 V by applying the desired
pass filters to attenuate any switching noise that may
threshold voltage to the current limit (ILIM) pin. When
be on the bus.
the CS level is greater than the ILIM voltage minus
Although quiescent VDD current is low, total supply 25 mV, the output of the driver is forced low and the
current will be higher, depending on the gate drive current limit flag (CLF) is set high. The CLF signal is
output current required by the switching frequency. latched high until the UCD7K device receives the
Total V
DD
current is the sum of quiescent V
DD
current next rising edge on the IN pin.
and the average OUT current. Knowing the operating
When the CS voltage is below ILIM, the driver output
frequency and the MOSFET gate charge (Q
G
), aver-
will follow the PWM input. The CLF digital output flag
age OUT current can be calculated from:
can be monitored by the host controller to determine
I
OUT
= Q
G
x f, where f is frequency. when a current limit event occurs and to then apply
the appropriate algorithm to obtain the desired current
For high-speed circuit performance, a V
DD
bypass
limit profile.
capacitor is recommended to prevent noise problems.
A 4.7-µF ceramic capacitor should be located close to One of the main benefits of this local protection
the V
DD
to ground connection. A larger capacitor with feature is that the UCD7K devices can protect the
relatively low ESR should be connected to the PVDD power stage if the software code in the digital
pin, to help deliver the high current peaks to the load. controller becomes corrupted and hangs up. If the
The capacitors should present a low impedance controller’s PWM output stays high, the local current
characteristic for the expected current levels in the sense circuit will turn off the driver output when an
driver application. The use of surface mount over-current condition occurs. The system would
components for all bypass capacitors is highly rec- likely go into a retry mode because; most DSP and
ommended. microcontrollers have on-board watchdog, brown-out,
and other supervisory peripherals to restart the device in the event that it is not operating properly. But
these peripherals typically do not react fast enough to
All devices in the UCD7K family are capable of
save the power stage. The UCD7K’s local current
supplying a regulated 3.3-V rail to power various
limit comparator provides the required fast protection
types of external loads such as a microcontroller or
for the power stage.
an ASIC. The onboard linear voltage regulator is
capable of sourcing up to 10 mA of current. For The CS threshold is 25 mV below the ILIM voltage.
normal operation, place a minimum of 0.22 µF of This way, if the user attempts to command zero
ceramic capacitance from the reference pin to current (I
LIM
< 25 mV) while the CS pin is at ground,
ground. for example at start-up, the CLF flag latches high until
the IN pin receives a pulse. At start-up it is necessary
to ensure that the ILIM pin always greater than the
CS pin for the handshaking to work as described
The IN pin is a high impedance digital input capable
below. If for any reason the CS pin comes to within
of accepting 3.3-V logic level signals up to 2 MHz.
25 mV of the ILIM pin during start-up, then the CLF
There is an internal Schmitt Trigger comparator which
isolates the internal circuitry from any external noise.
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