High precision from really LDOs

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Feb 13, 2002

Analog Devices claims its ADP3338 and ADP3339 offer users the lowest dropout and highest precision 1 and 1.5A LDOs available.

Analog Devices claims its ADP3338 and ADP3339 offer users the lowest dropout and highest precision 1 and 1.5A LDOs available.

The company has also expanded its offerings in the lower-current LDO arena with the introduction of the ADP3333 and ADP3334.

These chips provide best-in-class accuracy of 1.8% and ultra low dropout voltage, featuring output currents of 300 and 500mA, respectively.

The devices also include a safety current limit, thermal overload protection and a shutdown feature.

In shutdown mode, the ground current is reduced to less than 1uA.

ADI's anyCAP technology is the first LDO technology to allow designers to use virtually any size and type of output capacitor, regardless of ESR (equivalent series resistance), and still maintain output stability.

With anyCAP, ADI's LDOs boast precision performance, flexibility and the industry's smallest regulator footprints.

In addition, they are encased in patented thermally enhanced packages designed to offer low thermal resistance with maximum performance, allowing dissipation of 30% more power than traditional LDOs of the same size.

The ADP3338 and ADP3339 have extended ADI's industry leading anyCAP LDO family to currents beyond 1A, offering the same user conveniences at higher output, all in space-saving SOT-223 packages.

A key feature that sets these ICs apart from the competition is no compromise in the dropout specification at higher load currents.

The ADP3338 and ADP3339 provide best-in-class dropout voltage of 190mV typical at 1A and 230mV typical at 1.5A, respectively.

Many competing LDOs feature from several hundred millivolts to more than 1V dropout at full load current, thus removing them from the true "low dropout" category.

The ADP3338 has unparalleled accuracy of 1.4%, whereas the ADP3339 boasts accuracy of 1.5% over line, load and temperature, making them the highest-precision 1 and 1.5A LDOs in the industry.

Other benefits include pin-to-pin and functional replacement of legacy LDOs, low ground current, plus current and thermal limiting.

The ADP3338 is available at $1.40 per unit in 1000-piece quantities, while the ADP3339 is shipping at $1.65 per unit in 1000-piece quantities - both in SOT-223 packages.

The ADP3333 is available at $0.99 per unit in 1000-piece quantities, in an 8-lead MSOP, whereas the ADP3334 is shipping at $1.23 per unit in 1000 piece quantities, in an 8-lead SOIC package.

(This was Electronicstalk's Top Story on 12 February 2002).