The performance of switching converters
heavily depends on the quality of the PCB layout. Poor PCB design can cause among others
converter instability, load regulation problems, noise or EMI issues. Thermal relieved
connections in the power path for VCC should not be used as they add significant
inductance.
- Place the VCC and BIAS capacitors close
to the corresponding device pins and connect them with short and wide traces to minimize
inductance as they carry high peak currents.
- Place CSA and CSB filter resistors and
capacitors close to the corresponding device pins to minimize noise coupling between the
filter and the device. Route the traces to the sense resistor RCS, which is
placed close to the inductor, as differentail pair and surrounded by ground to avoide
noise coupling. Use Kelvin connections to the sense resistor.
- Place the compensation network
RCOMP and CCOMP as well as the frequency setting resistor
RRT close to the corresponding device pins and connect them with short traces
to avoide noise coupling. Connect the analog ground pin AGND to these components.
- Place the ATRK resistor RATRK
(when used) close to the ATRK pin and connect it to AGND.
- The layout of following components is not
so critical:
- Soft-Start capacitor
CSS
- DLY capacitor CDLY
- ILIM/IMON resitor and capacitor
RILIM and CILIM
- CFG1, CFG2 and SYNCOUT
resistors
- UVLO/EN resistors
- Place the filter VOUT
capacitors (small size ceramic) close to the VOUT-pin. Use short and wide traces to
minimize the power stage loop COUT to VOUT connection to avoid high voltage
spikes.
- Connect the PGND-pin connection with
short and wide traces to the VOUT and VI capacitors ground to
minimize inductance causing high voltage spikes.
- It is recommended to connect the AGND and
PGND pin directly to the exposed pad (EP) to form a star connection at the device.
- Connect the device exposed pad (EP) with
several vias to a ground plane to conduct heat away.
- Seperate power and signal traces and use
a ground plane to provide noise shielding.
To spread the heat generated by the
converter and the inductor, the inductor should be placed away from the converter. However
the longer the trace between the inductor and the converter the higher the EMI and noise
emissions. For highest efficiency the inductor should be connected by wide and short traces
to minimize resistive losses.