The main control loop of the buck is an adaptive on-time pulse width modulation (PWM) controller that supports a proprietary D-CAP3 control mode. The D-CAP3 control mode combines adaptive on-time control with an internal compensation circuit for pseudo-fixed frequency and low external component count configuration with both low-ESR and ceramic output capacitors. The device is stable even with virtually no ripple at the output. The TPSM86125x also includes an error amplifier that makes the output voltage very accurate.

At the beginning of each cycle, the high-side MOSFET is turned on. This MOSFET is turned off after an internal one-shot timer expires. This one-shot duration is set proportional to the output voltage, V_OUT, and is inversely proportional to the converter input voltage, V_IN, to maintain a pseudo-fixed frequency over the input voltage range, hence, called adaptive on-time control. The one-shot timer is reset and the high-side MOSFET is turned on again when the feedback voltage falls below the reference voltage. An internal ripple generation circuit is added to reference voltage to emulate the output ripple, enabling the use of very low-ESR output capacitors such as multi-layered ceramic caps (MLCC). No external current sense network or loop compensation is required for D-CAP3 control mode.