
MAX9796
Current-Limit and Thermal Protection
The MAX9796 features current limiting and thermal pro-
tection to protect the device from short circuits and
overcurrent conditions. The headphone amplifier puls-
es in the event of an overcurrent condition with a pulse
every 100s as long as the condition is present. Should
the current still be high, the above cycle is repeated.
The speaker amplifier current-limit protection clamps
the output current without shutting down the output.
This can result in a distorted output. Current is limited
to 1.6A in the speaker amplifiers and 170mA in the
headphone and mono receiver amplifiers.
The MAX9796 has thermal protection that disables the
device at +150°C until the temperate decreases to
+120°C.
Click-and-Pop Suppression
In conventional single-supply headphone amplifiers,
the output-coupling capacitor is a major contributor of
audible clicks and pops. Upon startup, the amplifier
charges the coupling capacitor to its bias voltage, typi-
cally half the supply. Likewise, during shutdown, the
capacitor is discharged to GND. This results in a DC
shift across the capacitor, which in turn, appears as an
audible transient at the speaker. Since the MAX9796
headphone amplifier does not require output-coupling
capacitors, this problem does not arise.
In most applications, the output of the preamplifier dri-
ving the MAX9796 has a DC bias of typically half the
supply. During startup, the input-coupling capacitor is
charged to the preamplifier’s DC bias voltage, resulting
in a DC shift across the capacitor and an audible click-
and-pop. An internal delay of 30ms eliminates the click-
and-pop caused by the input filter.
Shutdown
The MAX9796 features a 0.1A hard shutdown mode
that reduces power consumption to extend battery life
and a soft shutdown where current consumption is typi-
cally 8.5A. Hard shutdown is controlled by connecting
SHDN to GND, disabling the amplifiers, bias circuitry,
charge pump, and I2C. In shutdown, the headphone
amplifier output impedance is 1.4kΩ and the speaker
output impedance is 300kΩ. Similarly, the MAX9796
enters soft shutdown when the SHDN bit = 0 (see Table
2). The I2C interface is active and the contents of the
command register are not affected when in soft shut-
down. This allows the master to write to the MAX9796
while in shutdown. The I2C interface is completely dis-
abled in hardware shutdown. When the MAX9796 is re-
enabled the default settings are applied (see Table 3).
2.3W, High-Power Class D Audio Subsystem
with DirectDrive Headphone Amplifiers
18
______________________________________________________________________________________
INPUT
MIXER
INPUT
PREAMPLIFIER
INPUT A:
0dB, 6dB, 20dB
-75dB TO 0dB
0dB OR 6dB
MVOL
MONO+6dB
LVOL
-75dB TO 0dB
RVOL
INPUT B AND C:
0dB, 6dB
OUTPUT
MIXER
3dB
12dB
SPEAKER
HEADPHONE
RECEIVER
MONO
Figure 6. Signal Path