11.1 Layout Guidelines

The following guidelines should be followed when designing the PC board for the LM25066A:

• Place the LM25066A close to the board's input connector to minimize trace inductance from the connector to the MOSFET.
• Note that special care must be taken when placing the bypass capacitor for the VIN pin. During hot shorts, there is a very large dV/dt on input voltage after the MOSFET turns off. If the bypass capacitor is placed right next to the pin and the trace from Rsns to the pin is long, an LC filter is formed. As a result, a large differential voltage can develop between VIN and SENSE. To avoid this, place the bypass capacitor close to Rsns instead of the VIN pin.
Figure 55. Layout Trace Inductance
• Place a 1-µF capacitor as close as possible to VREF pin.
• Place a 1-µF capacitor as close as possible to VDD pin.
• The sense resistor (R_S) should be placed close to the LM25066A. In particular, the trace to the VIN pin should be made as low resistance as practical to ensure maximum current and power measurement accuracy. Connect R_S using the Kelvin techniques shown in Figure 57.
• The high current path from the board's input to the load (via Q₁) and the return path should be parallel and close to each other to minimize parasitic loop inductance.
• The ground connections for the various components around the LM25066A should be connected directly to each other and to the LM25066A's GND pin and then connected to the system ground at one point, as shown in Figure 58. Do not connect the various component grounds to each other through the high current ground line. For more details, see application note AN-2100.
• Provide adequate heat sinking for the series pass device (Q₁) to help reduce stresses during turnon and turnoff.
• Keep the gate trace from the LM25066A to the pass MOSFET short and direct.
• The board's edge connector can be designed such that the LM25066A detects via the UVLO/EN pin that the board is being removed and responds by turning off the load before the supply voltage is disconnected. For example, in Figure 56, the voltage at the UVLO/EN pin goes to ground before V_SYS is removed from the LM25066A because of the shorter edge connector pin. When the board is inserted into the edge connector, the system voltage is applied to the LM25066A's VIN pin before the UVLO voltage is taken high, thereby allowing the LM25066A to turn on the output in a controlled fashion.

11.2 Layout Example

Figure 56. Recommended Board Connector Design

Figure 57. Sense Resistor Connections

Figure 58. LM25066A Quiet IC Ground Layout