10.1 Layout Guidelines

As for all switching power supplies, the PCB layout is an important step in the design, especially at high peak currents and high switching frequencies. If the layout is not carefully done, the boost charger and buck converter could show stability problems as well as EMI problems. Therefore, use wide and short traces for the main current path and for the power ground paths. The input and output capacitors as well as the inductors should be placed as close as possible to the IC. For the boost charger, first priority are the output capacitors, including the 0.1uF bypass capacitor (CBYP), followed by CSTOR, which should be placed as close as possible between VSTOR, pin 19, and VSS, pin 1. Next, the input capacitor, CIN, should be placed as close as possible between VIN_DC, pin 2, and VSS, pin 1. Last in priority is the boost charger's inductor, L1, which should be placed close to LBOOST, pin 20, and VIN_DC, pin 2. For the buck converter, the output capacitor COUT should be placed as close as possible between VOUT, pin 14, and VSS, pin 15. The buck converter inductor (L2) should be placed as close as possible beween the switching node LBUCK, pin 16, and VOUT, pin 14. It is best to use vias and bottom traces for connecting the inductors to their respective pins instead of the capacitors.

To minimize noise pickup by the high impedance voltage setting nodes (VBAT_OV, OK_PROG, OK_HYST, VOUT_SET), the external resistors should be placed so that the traces connecting the midpoints of each divider to their respective pins are as short as possible. When laying out the non-power ground return paths (for example, from resistors and CREF), it is recommended to use short traces as well, separated from the power ground traces and connected to VSS pin 15. This avoids ground shift problems, which can occur due to superimposition of power ground current and control ground current. The PowerPAD should not be used as a power ground return path.

The remaining pins are either NC pins, that should be connected to the PowerPAD as shown below, or digital signals with minimal layout restrictions. See the EVM user's guide for an example layout (SLUUAA7).

In order to maximize efficiency at light load, the use of voltage level setting resistors > 1 MΩ is recommended. In addition, the sample and hold circuit output capacitor on VREF_SAMP must hold the voltage for 16s. During board assembly, contaminants such as solder flux and even some board cleaning agents can leave residue that may form parasitic resistors across the physical resistors/capacitors and/or from one end of a resistor/capacitor to ground, especially in humid, fast airflow environments. This can result in the voltage regulation and threshold levels changing significantly from those expected per the installed components. Therefore, it is highly recommended that no ground planes be poured near the voltage setting resistors or the sample and hold capacitor. In addition, the boards must be carefully cleaned, possibly rotated at least once during cleaning, and then rinsed with de-ionized water until the ionic contamination of that water is well above 50 MOhm. If this is not feasible, then it is recommended that the sum of the voltage setting resistors be reduced to at least 5X below the measured ionic contamination.