external ballast and maximum current usage.

Vincent_Jung — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 00:04:28 GMT

Hello All,

If we use external ballast of S12ZVH, how to estimate maximum current through it.

i already saw application note and it explained that current is depend on BJT size.

But, the application note does not mentioned about maximum current value.

could someone tell me how to estimate maximum current value?

Re: external ballast and maximum current usage.

RadekS — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 12:08:34 GMT

Hi Woonje,

In fact, the main purpose of the solution with external PNP transistor is to offload the heat generated by LDO regulator from MCU package.

Since this PNP transistor works in linear mode, the maximum current will be typically limited by the maximum amount of power which transistor could transfer to an ambient environment and simultaneously stay below maximum junction temperature. So, most important parameters will be the maximum ambient temperature, the maximum junction temperature and the junction to ambient thermal resistance for given transistor package with dissipation mounting pad area on the PCB.

In typical case you already know amount of current which will be necessary for powering MCU (see chapter A.3 Supply Currents, the power consumption depends mainly on bus clock value), GDU unit (you would need typically around 12mA for 6 switch events per PWM cycle (100nC total gate charge, 20kHz)) and external loads at VDDX and GPIO pins. In that case, you have to design transistor circuit and their dissipation mounting pad area on the PCB.

Please look at application note AN5207 Hardware Design Guidelines for S12ZVM Microcontrollers

http://www.nxp.com/files/microcontrollers/doc/app_note/AN5207.pdf

and chapter 3.6 Selecting the PNP External Ballast Transistor.

This application note for s12ZVM is slightly newer than AN4721 and contains some more details.

I already saw a presentation with more details about selecting external transistor and calculation of their parameters, but I was not able found it again. I will let you know when I will find anything more.

I hope it helps you.

Have a great day,
Radek

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Re: external ballast and maximum current usage.

RadekS — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 14:25:37 GMT

Here is that presentation.

I hope it helps you.

Re: external ballast and maximum current usage.

Vincent_Jung — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 01:12:13 GMT

Thank you Radek,

I will check your attachments.

S12 / MagniV MicrocontrollersのトピックRe: external ballast and maximum current usage.

external ballast and maximum current usage.

Re: external ballast and maximum current usage.

Re: external ballast and maximum current usage.

Re: external ballast and maximum current usage.