JAJSCQ0B December 2016 – March 2018 LMR23625-Q1
PRODUCTION DATA.
The most critical parameters for the inductor are the inductance, saturation current, and the rated current. The inductance is based on the desired peak-to-peak ripple current ΔiL. Since the ripple current increases with the input voltage, the maximum input voltage is always used to calculate the minimum inductance LMIN. Use Equation 12 to calculate the minimum value of the output inductor. KIND is a coefficient that represents the amount of inductor ripple current relative to the maximum output current of the device. A reasonable value of KIND is 20% to 40%. During an instantaneous short or over current operation event, the RMS and peak inductor current can be high. The inductor current rating must be higher than the current limit of the device.
In general, it is preferable to choose lower inductance in switching power supplies, because it usually corresponds to faster transient response, smaller DCR, and reduced size for more compact designs. But too low of an inductance can generate too large of an inductor current ripple such that over current protection at the full load could be falsely triggered. It also generates more conduction loss and inductor core loss. Larger inductor current ripple also implies larger output voltage ripple with same output capacitors. With peak current mode control, it is not recommended to have too small of an inductor current ripple. A larger peak current ripple improves the comparator signal to noise ratio.
For this design example, choose KIND = 0.4, the minimum inductor value is calculated to be 1.9 µH. Choose the nearest standard 2.2-μH ferrite inductor with a capability of 3.5-A RMS current, and 6-A saturation current.