Multiphase PWM Controller with Programmable Output Voltage

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The ISL9506 is a multiphase PWM buck controller for high performance digital processor core. This multiphase buck controller uses interleaved channels to reduce the total output voltage ripple with each channel carrying a portion of total load current. The multiple phase implementation results in better system performance, superior thermal management, lower component cost, reduced power dissipation, and smaller implementation area. The ISL9506 multiphase controller together with ISL6208 external gate drivers provide a complete solution to power the processor core. The PWM modulator of ISL9506 is based on Intersil's Robust Ripple Regulator technology (R3). Compared with the traditional multiphase buck regulator, the R3 modulator commands variable switching frequency during load transients, which achieves faster transient response. With the same modulator, the switching frequency is reduced at light load conditions resulting higher operation efficiency. ISL9506 responds to LP (Low Power) signal by adding or dropping PWM2 and adjusting overcurrent protection accordingly. ISL9506 enables diode emulation and stretches switching period at light load conditions to improve efficiency. The diode emulation feature is programmed by DEEN (Diode Emulation Enable) and DEENN pins. The ISL9506 has several other key features. ISL9506 reports output power through a power monitor pin (PMON). Current sense can be achieved by using either inductor DCR or discrete precision resistor. In the case of DCR current sensing, a single NTC thermistor is used to thermally compensate the inductor DCR variation with temperature. A unity gain, differential amplifier is available for remote voltage sensing. This allows the voltage at the load point to be accurately measured and regulated per voltage selection pins.