Power supply technology ensures stable control, says Rohm
Nano Cap power supply technology has been developed by Rohm Semiconductor to ensure stable control of power supply circuits in the automotive and industrial fields, even with small capacitances in the magnitude of nF, says the company.
The number of electrical components increases, especially in the automotive market and each electrical application requires a variety of voltage sources, all of them stabilised by capacitors. The result is an increasing demand of external components, increasing PCB sizes and adding cost to the bill of materials.
Rohm has added Nano Cap technology to its high-speed pulse control technology Nano Pulse Control and low current technology, Nano Energy to reduce the number of external capacitors required for linear regulators.
Nano Cap provides stable control of linear regulator output by improving response in analogue circuits while minimising parasitic factors related to wiring and amplifiers, making it possible to reduce the output capacitance to less than 1/10th over conventional solutions, explains Rohm.
In a circuit, typically comprised of a linear regulator and microcontroller, one microF capacitor is usually required at the output of the linear regulator while 100nF is requested at the input of the microcontroller. Using a Rohm linear regulator with Nano Cap technology eliminates the need for the capacitor at the regulator output and ensures stable operation with just the 100nF input capacitor, reports Rohm. By decreasing both the number of capacitors and the capacitance needed for power supply circuits, Rohm says it can contribute to minimising circuit design load.
Operational amplifier (op amp) samples using Nano Cap technology have already been released, while the company will release linear regulators using Nano Cap technology as well as LED drivers with built-in Nano Cap-equipped regulators are scheduled to be released later this year.
Rohm has said that it will develop the technology to other analogue ICs to minimise environmental load.
