Using the S-CONF pin enables or disables spread spectrum modulation. DC/DC converters generate an output voltage ripple at the switching frequency. When powering ADCs or an analog front end (AFE), the switching frequency generates high frequency mixing spurs as well as a low frequency spur in the output frequency spectrum. Using the optional second stage L-C filter reduces the ripple of the converter and spurs by up to 30 dB.

The device has integrated two different spread spectrum modulation (SSM) schemes that are selected by the resistor connected to the S-CONF pin acording to Table 7-1. It is possible to select random or triangle modulation to spread the switching frequency over a larger frequency range. The triangular SSM is modulated based on the switching frequency, and results in 1.9 kHz for 1 MHz switching frequency and 4.3 kHz for 2.2 MHz switching frequency. The modulation spread is ±10% of the device switching frequency. This SSM provides high attenuation when the receiver bandwidth is less than the modulation frequency, typically the case for systems using Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT) post processing as in high speed ADC applications. For applications sensitive to noise at the modulation frequency, random SSM is used. Using a random spread spectrum modulation also reduces the spurs in the output spectrum as shown in Figure 6-2. The random SSM operates with the same frequency spread and modulation period as the triangular SSM. The randomized modulation uses a Fibonacci Linear-Feedback Shift Register (LFSR) so that every tone is generated once during the pseudo-random generation period. The frequency spreading is shown in Figure 7-2.The attenuation using random or triangle SSM is shown in Figure 6-28.

Figure 7-2 Spread Spectrum Modulation