Microchip announces a DEPA (Digitally-Enhanced Power Analogue) buck controller for DC/DC conversion that offers more flexibility than any other analog control architecture currently available on the market. The MCP19122/3's internal PIC® microcontroller can dynamically adjust the operating frequency, overvoltage and undervoltage lockout thresholds, current limits, soft start, output voltage or current reference points, and maximum duty cycle. This level of configuration offers numerous advantages to the application. For example, the MCP19123 can dynamically adjust the output voltage to meet USB power requirements, as well as adjust the output overvoltage lockout to maintain precise protection limits for each output voltage level.
The MCP19123 buck driver offers many unique capabilities, such as a programmable differential input amplifier to optimize performance and minimize system voltage error. This configurability allows for the wide range of output voltages characteristic of USB power supplies and battery chargers. Improving integration into larger systems, the device can be synchronized to an external clock and voltage reference, or it can provide the system's internal clock and reference for synchronizing other devices. In servers or communications equipment, this enables seamless power-up and accurate monitoring of power consumption across the board.
In high-power applications, the outputs can operate in parallel to provide system redundancy and improve reliability. Combined with its programmable diagnostics and fault detection capabilities, unmatched in the market, the MCP19122/3 is ideal for high-performance smart power applications.
This device also offers excellent accuracy for a power supply with adjustable output. A DC/DC converter using the MCP19122/3 can maintain output voltage accuracy with an initial value of 0.5%. In addition to precise voltage regulation, the MCP19122/3 is designed to provide best-in-class current measurement by utilizing a lossless inductor current sensing method with specialized internal measurement calibrations. The device can directly accept a common-mode signal of up to 16V and supply load current with 5% accuracy for most applications, with emulated average current mode control for hardware-based cycle-by-cycle current limiting.
The devices are supported by Microchip's suite of programming and development tools, including the MPLAB® X Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and the MPLAB XC8 compiler.
The MCP19122 is now available and comes in a 4 x 4 QFN package for sampling and volume production. The MCP19123 is now available and comes in a 5 x 5 QFN package.
