AN99-5
LOW COST PWM CONTROLLER
2000 SEMTECH CORP.
652 MITCHELL ROAD NEWBURY PARK CA 91320
January 13, 2000
2
LAYOUT GUIDELINES
Careful attention to layout requirements are necessary
for successful implementation of the SC1101/03 PWM
controller. High currents switching at 200kHz are present
in the application and their effect on ground plane volt-
age differentials must be understood and minimized.
1). The high power parts of the circuit should be laid out
first. A ground plane should be used, the number and
position of ground plane interruptions should be such as
to not unnecessarily compromise ground plane integrity.
Isolated or semi-isolated areas of the ground plane may
be deliberately introduced to constrain ground currents
to particular areas, for example the input capacitor and
bottom Schottky ground.
2). The loop formed by the Input Capacitor(s) (Cin), the
Top FET (Q1) and the Schottky (D1) must be kept as
small as possible. This loop contains all the high current,
fast transition switching. Connections should be as wide
and as short as possible to minimize loop inductance.
Minimizing this loop area will reduce EMI, lower ground
injection currents, resulting in electrically “cleaner”
grounds for the rest of the system and minimize source
ringing, resulting in more reliable gate switching signals.
3). The connection between the junction of Q1, D1 and
the output inductor should be a wide trace or copper re-
gion. It should be as short as practical. Since this con-
nection has fast voltage transitions, keeping this connec-
tion short will minimize EMI. The connection between the
output inductor and the sense resistor should be a wide
trace or copper area, there are no fast voltage or current
transitions in this connection and length is not so impor-
tant, however adding unnecessary impedance will re-
duce efficiency.
4) The Output Capacitor(s) (Cout) should be located as
close to the load as possible, fast transient load currents
are supplied by Cout only, and connections between
Cout and the load must be short, wide copper areas to
minimize inductance and resistance.
5) The SC1101/03 is best placed over an isolated
ground plane area. GND and PGND should be returned
to this isolated ground. This isolated ground area should
be connected to the main ground by a trace that runs
from the GND pin to the ground side of (one of) the out-
put capacitor(s). If this is not possible, the GND pin may
be connected to the ground path between the Output
Capacitor(s) and the Cin, Q1, D1 loop. Under no circum-
stances should GND be returned to a ground inside the
Cin, Q1, D1 loop.
6) Vcc for the SC1101/03 should be supplied from the
VIN supply through a 10
resistor, the Vcc pin should
be
decoupled directly to GND by a 0.1mF ceramic capaci-
tor, trace lengths should be as short as possible.
7) The Current Sense resistor and the divider across it
should form as small a loop as possible, the traces run-
ning back to CS(+) and CS(-) on the SC1101/03 should
run parallel and close to each other. The 0.1μF capacitor
should be mounted as close to the CS(+) and CS(-) pins
as possible.
8) To minimize noise pickup at the sensitive FB pin, the
feedback resistors should both be close to the
SC1101/03 with the bottom resistor (Rb) returned to
ground at the GND pin.
Vout
12V
4uH
5mOhm
+
Cout
+
Cin
10
0.1uF
2.32k
1.00k
Q1
0.1uF
24V IN
Heavy lines indicate
high current paths.
D1
SC1103CS
GND
8
VCC
1
CS(-)
2
CS(+)
3
PGND
4
DH
5
BST
6
FB
7
Rb
Ra