SLUSCZ1 May 2017 TPS92518-Q1
PRODUCTION DATA.
A linearity limitation occurs at very small PWM duty cycles; the PWM dimming on-time becomes short enough that it contains only one or a few switching cycles. If the PWMx pulse falls during an off-time (see Figure 28), the pulse length is not able to change because the switch is already off. This can lead to a small 'stair-case' dimming curve in this region as the duty cycle affects the average current during on-times and then not during off-times. This situation can be improved by increasing the switching frequency. This limitation is common to all Buck converters during very small PWM dimming duty cycles.
Shunt FET PWM dimming avoids this issue as the average current is affected during switching ON and OFF times. Shunt FET PWM dimming can out-perform PWM dimming, but is more complicated to implement.