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 LMR36015 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.