
10
LTC3560
3560f
Efficiency Considerations
The efficiency of a switching regulator is equal to the
output power divided by the input power times 100%. It is
often useful to analyze individual losses to determine what
is limiting the efficiency and which change would produce
the most improvement. Efficiency can be expressed as:
Efficiency = 100% – (L1 + L2 + L3 + ...)
where L1, L2, etc. are the individual losses as a percentage
of input power.
Although all dissipative elements in the circuit produce
losses, two main sources usually account for most of the
losses in LTC3560 circuits: VIN quiescent current and I2R
losses. The VIN quiescent current loss dominates the
efficiency loss at very low load currents whereas the I2R
loss dominates the efficiency loss at medium to high load
currents. In a typical efficiency plot, the efficiency curve at
very low load currents can be misleading since the actual
power lost is of no consequence as illustrated in Figure 3.
APPLICATIO S I FOR ATIO
WU
UU
Figure 2. Setting the LTC3560 Output Voltage
1. The VIN quiescent current is due to two components:
the DC bias current as given in the electrical character-
istics and the internal main switch and synchronous
switch gate charge currents. The gate charge current
results from switching the gate capacitance of the
internal power MOSFET switches. Each time the gate is
switched from high to low to high again, a packet of
charge, dQ, moves from VIN to ground. The resulting
dQ/dt is the current out of VINthat is typically larger than
the DC bias current. In continuous mode, IGATECHG =
f(QT + QB) where QT and QB are the gate charges of the
internal top and bottom switches. Both the DC bias and
gate charge losses are proportional to VIN and thus
their effects will be more pronounced at higher supply
voltages.
2. I2R losses are calculated from the resistances of the
internal switches, RSW, and external inductor RL. In
continuous mode, the average output current flowing
through inductor L is “chopped” between the main
switch and the synchronous switch. Thus, the series
resistance looking into the SW pin is a function of both
top and bottom MOSFET RDS(ON) and the duty cycle
(DC) as follows:
RSW = (RDS(ON)TOP)(DC) + (RDS(ON)BOT)(1 – DC)
The RDS(ON) for both the top and bottom MOSFETs can
be obtained from the Typical Performance Charateristics
curves. Thus, to obtain I2R losses, simply add RSW to
RL and multiply the result by the square of the average
output current.
Other losses including CIN and COUT ESR dissipative
losses and inductor core losses generally account for less
than 2% total additional loss.
Thermal Considerations
In most applications the LTC3560 does not dissipate
much heat due to its high efficiency. But, in applications
where the LTC3560 is running at high ambient
temperature with low supply voltage and high duty
cycles, such as in dropout, the heat dissipated may
exceed the maximum junction temperature of the part. If
the junction temperature reaches approximately 150
°C,
VFB
GND
LTC3560
0.6V
≤ VOUT ≤ 5.5V
R2
R1
3560 F02
Figure 3. Power Lost vs Load Current
LOAD CURRENT (mA)
0.1
0.0001
POWER
LOST
(W)
0.01
1
10
1
100
1000
3560 F03
0.001
0.1
VIN = 3.6V
VIN = 4.2V
VIN = 5.5V
VOUT = 2.5V
Burst Mode OPERATION