New Industry Products

Intersil Introduces New 2 & 3A Linear Regulators

December 27, 2009 by Jeff Shepard

Intersil Corp. introduced the ISL80102 and ISL80103, a pair of low voltage, high-current, low dropout linear regulators (LDOs), specified for 2 and 3A output current, respectively. While most LDOs in the market are based on decades old technology, these new parts utilize state-of-the-art BiCMOS technology to achieve new levels of performance. These new LDOs provide what the company says is the industry’s fastest transient response, which ensures that the output voltage is properly regulated under varying load current changes. They also feature very low dropout, 120mV dropout at 3A and 81mV dropout at 2A.

Operating from input voltages of 2.2 to 6V, the ISL80102 and ISL80103 are capable of providing supply output voltages of 0.8 to 5V on the adjustable versions. Fixed output voltages of 0.8, 1.2, 1.5, 1.8, 2.5, 3.3 and 5V also are available, as are custom voltage options. Initial VOUT Accuracy is +/- 0.5%, and the devices provide +/-1.8% guaranteed VOUT accuracy for the junction temperature range of -40 to +125°C, assuring accurate point-of-load voltage regulation in critical applications. Shutdown current is less than 1microA, and PSRR is 60dB over full-rated load current.

The two new LDOs also include an enable feature, so they can be placed into a low quiescent current shutdown mode. Additional capabilities including PowerGood status indicator, soft-start, overcurrent protection, and thermal shutdown ensure that they are highly reliable and customizable for various applications. This combination of features make the ISL80102 and ISL80103 well suited for a wide range of applications including core power supplies for microprocessors, DSPs and FPGAs, as well as instrumentation applications, industrial and medical equipment, servers, and networking equipment. Because they are manufactured using a BiCMOS process, the devices consume significantly lower quiescent current as a function of load, compared with LDOs manufactured using older bipolar processes.

The ISL80102 and ISL80103 are available now in compact 3 x 3 10-lead DFN packages. Prices per 1,000 pieces start at $ 1.42 each for the ISL80102 and $2.26 each for the ISL80103. Intersil also intends to provide the new LDOs in 5-Lead TO263 and TO220 packages by the beginning of 2010.