Micrel, Inc. MIC94325/45/55
October 2012 10 M9999-102512-A
Application Information
The MIC943x5 family of products is a very-high PSRR,
fixed-output, 500mA LDO utilizing Ripple Blocker
technology. The MIC943x5 is fully protected from
damage due to fault conditions, offering linear current
limiting and thermal shutdown.
Input Capacitor
The MIC943x5 is a high-performance, high-bandwidth
device. An input capacitor of 4.7µF is required from the
input to ground to provide stability. Low-ESR ceramic
capacitors provide optimal performance at a minimum of
space. Additional high-frequency capacitors, such as
small-valued NPO dielectric-type capacitors, help filter
out high-frequency noise and are good practice in any
RF-based circuit. X5R or X7R dielectrics are
recommended for the input capacitor. Y5V dielectrics
lose most of their capacitance over temperature and are
therefore, not recommended.
Output Capacitor
In order to maintain stability, the MIC943x5 requires an
output capacitor of 4.7µF or greater. For optimal input
voltage ripple rejection performance a 4.7µF capacitor is
recommended. The design is optimized for use with low-
ESR ceramic chip capacitors. High-ESR capacitors are
not recommended because they may cause high-
frequency oscillation. The output capacitor can be
increased, but performance has been optimized for a
4.7µF ceramic output capacitor and does not improve
significantly with larger capacitance.
X7R/X5R dielectric type ceramic capacitors are
recommended because of their temperature
performance. X7R type capacitors change capacitance
by 15% over their operating temperature range and are
the most stable type of ceramic capacitors. Z5U and
Y5V dielectric capacitors change their value by as much
as 50% and 60%, respectively, over their operating
temperature ranges. To use a ceramic chip capacitor
with the Y5V dielectric, the value must be much higher
than an X7R ceramic capacitor to ensure the same
minimum capacitance over the equivalent operating
temperature range.
No Load Stability
The MIC943x5 will remain stable and in regulation with
no load. This is especially important in CMOS RAM
keep-alive applications.
Enable/Shutdown
Forcing the enable (EN) pin low disables the MIC943x5
and sends it into a “zero” off mode current state. In this
state, current consumed by the MIC943x5 goes nearly to
zero. Forcing EN high enables the output voltage. The
EN pin uses CMOS technology and cannot be left
floating as it could cause an indeterminate state on the
output.
For the MIC94325 adjustable part, the turn-on time is
affected by the selection of the external feedback resistors
and feed-forward capacitor. The relationship is
approximately 2.2 x R2 x Cff, where R2 is the bottom
resistor (connected from ADJ to GND) and Cff is the
capacitor connected across R1 (from VOUT to ADJ). For
stability, the feed-forward capacitor must be greater than
1nF. 10nF is recommended for best performance.
When disabled, the MIC94355 switches a 50Ω (typical)
load on the regulator output to discharge the external
capacitors.
Adjustable Regulator Application
The MIC94325 output voltage can be adjusted by using
two external resistors (Figure 1). The resistors set the
output voltage based on the following equation:
R2
R1
1VV ADJ
OUT
V
ADJ = 1.1V
Figure 1. Adjustable Output Voltage
Thermal Considerations
The MIC943x5 is designed to provide 500mA of
continuous current in a very-small package. Maximum
ambient operating temperature can be calculated based
on the output current and the voltage drop across the
part. For example if the input voltage is 2.5V, the output
voltage is 1.8V, and the output current = 500mA. The
actual power dissipation of the Ripple Blocker™ can be
determined using the equation: