Every switching regulator has a minimum controllable on-time dictated by the inherent delays and blanking times associated with the control circuits. This imposes a minimum switch duty cycle and, therefore, a minimum conversion ratio. The constraint is encountered at high input voltages and low output voltages. To help extend the minimum controllable duty cycle, the LMR34215-Q1 automatically reduces the switching frequency when the minimum on-time limit is reached. This way, the converter can regulate the lowest programmable output voltage at the maximum input voltage. An estimate for the approximate input voltage, for a given output voltage, before frequency foldback occurs, is found in Equation 2. As the input voltage is increased, the switch on-time (duty cycle) reduces to regulate the output voltage. When the on-time reaches the limit, the switching frequency drops, while the on-time remains fixed.

Equation 2.

Figure 8-11 Switching Frequency vs Input Voltage V_OUT = 5 V