SLVS975C September 2009 – April 2018 TPS54318
PRODUCTION DATA.
The inductor selected must operate across the entire TPS54318 device input voltage range. To calculate the value of the output inductor, use Equation 19. KIND is a coefficient that represents the amount of inductor ripple current relative to the maximum output current. The inductor ripple current is filtered by the output capacitor. Therefore, choosing high inductor ripple currents impacts the selection of the output capacitor since the output capacitor must have a ripple current rating equal to or greater than the inductor ripple current. In general, the inductor ripple value is at the discretion of the designer; however, KIND is normally from 0.1 to 0.3 for the majority of applications.
For this design example, use a KIND of 0.3 and the inductor value is calculated to be 1.40 μH. For this design, use an inductor with the nearest standard value of 1.50 μH. For the output filter inductor, it is important that the RMS current and saturation current ratings not be exceeded. The RMS and peak inductor current can be calculated in Equation 21 and Equation 22.
For this design, the RMS inductor current is 3.01 A and the peak inductor current is 3.42 A. The chosen inductor is a Coilcraft XPL7030-152ML. It has a RMS current rating of 12.3 A and a saturation current rating of 20.2 A. The current ratings for this exceed the requirement, but the inductor was chosen for small physical size and low series resistance for high efficiency.
The current flowing through the inductor is the inductor ripple current plus the output current. During power up, faults or transient load conditions, the inductor current can increase above the calculated peak inductor current level calculated above. In transient conditions, the inductor current can increase up to the switch current limit of the device. For this reason, the most conservative approach is to specify an inductor with a saturation current rating equal to or greater than the switch current limit rather than the peak inductor current.