New Industry Products

Allegro MicroSystems Announces New Triple Output Step Down Switching Regulator

April 17, 2008 by Jeff Shepard

Allegro MicroSystems, Inc. announced a new triple output step down switching regulator. The A4490 provides three high current, adjustable switching regulator outputs with an input voltage range of 4.5 to 34V. Each output is adjustable from 0.8 to 5V with a maximum current of 2 A.

Multiphase switching reduces EMI and minimizes stress on input capacitors by interleaving the turn-on cycle of the regulators. Features like soft start, power on reset output and a small 4 x 4mm QFN package are said to make this new device a suitable choice for many portable, office automation, and consumer applications.

The 550 kHz fixed frequency switching is said to allow selection of small, inexpensive inductors and ceramic output capacitors. A charge pump is used to provide the supply to drive the power switches to ensure operation at very wide operating duty cycles and to avoid the need for power draining clamp circuits.

A power-on-reset circuit with programmable delay indicates when enabled regulators are in specification. The power-on-reset flag also indicates when the input voltage drops below specification, giving the system controller advance warning whilst the switchers continue to operate down to the shutdown level. Internal diagnostics provide comprehensive protection against, overloads, input under voltages and over temperatures.

Allegro’s A4490 is supplied in a low profile (0.75mm) 4 x 4mm, 20 pin QFN package with exposed power tab. It is priced at 1.19 in quantities of 1,000 and has a 14 week typical lead-time to market.