The integrated soft-start circuit prevents input inrush current impacting the LMR38020 and the input power supply. Soft start is achieved by slowly ramping up the target regulation voltage when the device is first enabled or powered up. The typical soft-start time is 4.0 ms.

The LMR38020 also employs overcurrent protection blanking time, T_{OCP_BLK} (18-ms typical), at the beginning of power up. Without this feature, in applications with a large amount of output capacitors and high V_OUT, the inrush current is large enough to trigger current-limit protection, which can make the device enter into hiccup mode. The device tries to restart after the hiccup period, then hits the current limit and enters into hiccup mode again, so V_OUT cannot ramp up to the setting voltage ever. By introducing the OCP blanking feature, the hiccup protection function is disabled during T_{OCP_BLK}, and LMR38020 charges the V_OUT with its maximum limited current, which maximizes the output current capacity during this period. Note that the peak current limit (I_{HS_LIMIT}) and valley current limit (I_{LS_LIMIT}) protection functions are still available during T_{OCP_BLK}, so there is no concern of inductor current running away.