Functional description
L5986 - L5986A
5.2
Soft-start
The soft-start is essential to assure correct and safe start up of the step-down converter. It
avoids inrush current surge and makes the output voltage increases monothonically.
The soft-start is performed by a staircase ramp on the non-inverting input (VREF) of the Error
Amplifier. So the output voltage slew rate is:
Equation 1
SROUT
=
SRVREF
⋅
⎛
⎝
1
+
RR-----12--⎠⎞
where SRVREF is the slew rate of the non-inverting input, while R1and R2 is the resistor
divider to regulate the output voltage (see Figure 6). The soft-start stair case consists of 64
steps of 9.5mV each one, from 0 V to 0.6 V. The time base of one step is of 32 clock cycles.
So the soft-start time and then the output voltage slew rate depend on the switching
frequency.
Figure 6. Soft-start scheme
Soft-start time results:
Equation 2
SSTIME
=
3----2-----⋅---6---4--
Fsw
For example with a switching frequency of 250 kHz the SSTIME is 8 ms.
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