CSD86330Q3D Power Block and TPS53219 Buck Controller

End equipment designers from netbooks to basestations are becoming more concerned about efficiency, power loss, and power density. Designers must improve efficiency and support higher load currents while their end customers are expecting smaller form factors. Traditional approaches to improve efficiency in DC/DC synchronous buck converters include reducing conduction losses in the MOSFETs through lower R_DS(ON) devices and lowering switching losses through low frequency operation. The incremental improvements in R_DS(ON) are at a point of diminishing returns and lower frequency does not support improvements in power density.

Texas Instruments' 3x3 SON NexFET™ Power Block (CSD86330Q3D) is designed to leverage the NexFET power MOSFET's significantly lower gate charge and an innovative stacked die packaging approach to help overcome these limitations. The graph below illustrates the Power Block's efficiency using the TPS53219 (high performance PWM buck controller in a 3x3 QFN package). As can be seen, the combination achieves over 90% efficiency from 3 A to 15 A (gray curve). The Power Block can be used to dramatically outperform competitors' 3x3 discrete devices and uses half the board space. It can also operate at frequencies up to 1.5 MHz to further improve power density.