New Industry Products

two 1A, ultra-low dropout regulators

December 19, 1999 by Jeff Shepard

Micrel Semiconductor Inc. (San Jose, CA) recently announced two 1A, ultra-low dropout regulators in a thermally enhanced SO-8 package, the MIC39101 and MIC39102. The devices are designed to convert 3.3V to 2.5V and 2.5V to 1.8V for low-voltage microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs) and programmable logic devices (PLDs). The MIC39101 is a fixed output voltage regulator with an error flag that warns when an output is out of regulation. The MIC39102 has an adjustable output voltage capable of going down to 1.25V. According to Micrel, users have the flexibility with the MIC39102 of tuning to any output voltage needed to optimize the performance of a microcontroller, DSP or PLD. Compared to traditional 1A LDOs in SOT-23 packaging, the MIC39101 and MIC39102 are 40 percent smaller in area while maintaining the same power capabilities, said Lisa Wong, product marketing engineer for LDOs. Even with only 410mV of dropout voltage, they make no compromise in power handling. They are clearly the best solutions for applications with minimum input-output headroom and PCB space limitation.