SSTIMER FUNCTIONALITY
THERMAL INFORMATION
SLLS801A – JUNE 2008 – REVISED JUNE 2008 .............................................................................................................................................................. www.ti.com
and heat can be continually removed from the IC.
Because of the efficiency of the TAS5102, heatsinks
The SSTIMER pin uses a capacitor connected
can be used which are much smaller than those
between this pin and ground to control the output
required
for
linear
amplifiers
of
equivalent
duty cycle when a transition occurs on the RESET
performance.
pin. The capacitor on the SSTIMER pin is slowly
charged through an internal current source, and the
RθJA is a system thermal resistance from junction to
charge time determines the rate at which the output
ambient air. As such, it is a system parameter with
transitions from a near zero duty cycle to the duty
roughly the following components: RθJC (the thermal
cycle that is present on the inputs. This allows for a
resistance from junction to case, or in this instance
smooth transition with no audible pop or click noises
the metal pad), thermal grease thermal resistance,
when the RESET pin transitions from high-to-low or
and heatsink thermal resistance. RθJC has been
low-to-high.
provided in the Device Information section. The
thermal grease thermal resistance can be calculated
For a high-to-low transition of the RESET pin
from the exposed pad area and the thermal grease
(shutdown case), it is important for the modulator to
manufacturer's area thermal resistance (expressed in
remain switching for a period of at least 10 ms (if
°C-in2/W).
The
area
thermal
resistance
of
the
using a 2.2 nF capacitor). Larger capacitors will
example thermal grease with a 0.001-inch thick layer
increase the start-up/shutdown time, while capacitors
is about 0.054 °C-in2/W. The approximate exposed
smaller
than
2.2
nF
will
decrease
the
pad area is 0.01164 in2. Dividing the example thermal
start-up/shutdown time. The inputs MUST remain
grease area resistance by the area of the pad gives
switching on the shutdown transition to allow the
the actual resistance through the thermal grease , 3.3
outputs to slowly ramp down the duty cycle to near
°C/W.
zero before completely shutting off. The SSTIMER
pin should be left floating for BD modulation and also
Heatsink thermal resistance is generally predicted by
for SE (single-ended) mode.
the heatsink vendor, modeled using a continuous flow
dynamics (CFD) model, or measured.
Thus for a single IC, the system RθJA= RθJC + thermal
grease resistance + heatsink resistance.
The thermally augmented package provided with the
TAS5102 is designed to be interfaced directly to a
Thermal information for the TAS5103 Pad Down
heatsink using a thermal interface compound (for
example, Wakefield Engineering type 126 thermal
PowerPAD Thermally Enhanced Package Application
grease.) The heatsink then absorbs heat from the IC
Report . Additional material regarding thermal metrics
and couples it to the local air. If the heatsink is
can be found in TI document SPRA953A, IC Package
carefully designed, this process can reach equilibrium
Thermal Metrics (Rev. A).
20
Copyright 2008, Texas Instruments Incorporated