New Industry Products

Allegro Announces a New Wide-Input Voltage 3A Step-Down Regulator

June 12, 2006 by Jeff Shepard

Allegro Microsystems Inc. expanded its family of step-down regulators by adding a 3A fixed off-time, current-mode-controlled buck-switching regulator. This general-purpose buck regulator is targeted at the consumer electronics and industrial markets. This new device can be used in a wide variety of applications; the 8V to 50V input range makes it ideal where a wide range of input voltages may occur.

Allegro's A8498 can handle a wide input of operating voltage ranges. The regulator requires an external clamping diode, inductor and filter capacitor, and the off time is determined by an external resistor. It will operate in both continuous and discontinuous modes. An internal blanking circuit will be used to filter out transients due to the reverse recovery of the external clamp diode. Typical blanking time is 200 nS, and the output voltage is adjustable from 0.8V to 24V based on a resistor divider and the 0.8V +/- 3 percent reference.

This new device is well-suited for various end products including applications with 8V to 50V input voltage range needing a buck regulator for 3A output current, consumer equipment power, uninterruptible power supplies, 12V lighter-powered applications (portable DVD, etc.), automotive 12V or 24V input applications with higher voltage protection, point of sale (POS) applications, and industrial applications with 24V or 36V bus.

Allegro's A8498 is supplied in an eSOIC-8L package, is priced at $0.76 in quantities of 10,000 and has a 12 week lead-time to market.