10.1 Layout Guidelines

Layout is an important step for LDO power supplies, especially for high-voltage and large-output-current supplies. If the layout is not carefully designed, the regulator can fail to deliver enough output current because of thermal limitations. To improve the thermal performance of the device, and to maximize the current output at high ambient temperature, spread the copper under the thermal pad as far as possible and put enough thermal vias on the copper under the thermal pad. Figure 33 shows an example layout.