Fairchild Fully Integrated Power Supply Provides Advanced DC-DC Solution for Portable, Industrial & Medical Applications

According to Fairchild Semiconductor, design and system engineers of consumer, industrial and medical electronics employing low dropout regulators (LDO) have sacrificed dc-dc regulator efficiency, which adversely affects the overall efficiency of the design, in order to take advantage of an LDO’s ease-of-use. Fairchild states that its new power dc-dc micro-module offers customers the ability to reduce board space, reduce component count and improve the overall system efficiency of their designs. Alternative efficiency improvement methods include implementing a traditional dc-dc switching converter, which requires in-house design capability and delays time-to-market.

The FAN4603 micro-module dc-dc buck solution, unlike a traditional switching dc-dc implementation, integrates the passive components and the dc-dc regulator into a single ’solder-and-play’ module. As a complete package, this micro-module is a highly integrated, robust dc-dc solution, reducing component count by at least three components.

This device also allows designers to use an advanced, high-frequency dc-dc solution in their end applications, taking advantage of higher efficiency, robust dc-dc power, reducing the footprint by 40% and simplifying layout and applications validation testing, without lengthening design times and qualification cycles, and shortening overall time-to-market.

The FAN4603’s proprietary architecture consumes very low quiescent current and delivers ultra-fast transient response. With quiescent current of 35µA typ. in standby mode, this solution is able to provide best-in-class transient response, making it more reactive to fast changes in load requirements.

The FAN4603 is housed in a 4 x 2.5mm MLP package, and price at US$1.15 in 1K units with a delivery of 12 weeks.