SNVSAU0 March 2017 LM5141
PRODUCTION DATA.
A power supply input typically has a relatively high source impedance at the switching frequency. Good quality input capacitors are necessary to limit the ripple voltage at the VIN pin while supplying most of the switch current during the buck switch on-time. When the buck switch turns on, the current drawn from the input capacitor steps from zero to the valley of the inductor current waveform, then ramps up to the peak value, and then drops to the zero at turn-off.
Average input current can be calculated from the total input power required to support the load at VOUT:
The efficiency (η) is assumed to be 83% for this design example, yielding a total input power:
The input capacitors should be selected with sufficient RMS current rating and the maximum voltage rating.