New Industry Products

AnalogicTech Announces 3A Step-Down Converter For 12V Industrial Applications

January 22, 2008 by Jeff Shepard

Advanced Analogic Technologies Inc. (AnalogicTech™) announced the AAT1160, a synchronous step-down dc-dc converter delivering up to 3A output from a 12V input. Combining high power efficiency levels and a very low 150µA quiescent current, the AAT1160 is said to offer power savings in a variety of industrial applications, especially those using backplanes, as well as portable systems running off two-cell Lithium-ion batteries.

"Maximizing power efficiency and minimizing power consumption to meet emerging green energy standards is becoming increasingly important in more and more industrial applications where it traditionally wasn’t even considered before," said Bill Weiss, Product Line Director for AnalogicTech. "By capitalizing on our proprietary ModularBCD™ process technology, minimizing quiescent current consumption and using a synchronous design, the AAT1160 delivers significant power savings to tightly packed rack-mounted, backplane-based systems such as telecommunications switches, cellular base stations and server farms."

The AAT1160 current-mode, step-down dc-dc converter operates across a wide 4 to 13.2V input voltage range. It supplies a load current up to 3A with a fixed or adjustable output voltage which can be regulated to as low as 0.6V. The device supports efficiency levels up to 96%. The AAT1160 also consumes what is described as an industry-leading low 150µA no-load quiescent current. The AAT1160 maintains high efficiency over the entire load range. The user can select to operate the device in a forced Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) mode and synchronize the switching to an external signal to control switching noise. The high 800 kHz switching frequency also minimizes total solution size by allowing the use of small external components. A soft start function limits input surge current and eliminates output voltage overshoot when the device is turned on. The AAT1160 also features short-circuit and over-temperature protection.

The AAT1160’s performance and low power consumption is also a product of AnalogicTech’s Modular BCD process technology. Compared to linear-IC legacy fabs and generic digital CMOS foundries, ModularBCD is said to provide more cost-effective, modular fabrication of analog, power and mixed-signal ICs by monolithically integrating fully-isolated CMOS at multiple voltages, complementary bipolar transistors, and robust power devices. This process is said to avoid complex and expensive techniques such as epitaxy and high-temperature diffusion.

Devices manufactured in ModularBCD are said to offer higher efficiency, smaller size and higher levels of integration than those fabricated in many other processes. They are also claimed to offer designers better ability to manage power and extend battery life in a wide range of mobile consumer electronics products such as cell phones, portable media players, tablet and laptop computers and digital cameras.

Qualified across the -40 to +85°C temperature range, the AAT1160 is available in a Pb-free, 16-pin 3 mm X 4 mm TDFN package. It sells for $1.82 in 1K quantities.