Power chips provide nine regulators in one

Power management ICs for cellphones and multifunction portable devices feature nine ULDO regulators capable of sourcing up to 300mA from multiple inputs via an I2C serial interface.

New from Semtech is the SC905 family of power management ICs for cellphones and multifunction portable devices.

These ICs feature nine ultra-low-dropout (ULDO) regulators capable of sourcing up to 300mA from multiple inputs via an I2C serial interface, offering great design flexibility.

Each UDLO's output current and output noise is specifically optimised to match the handset's baseband functions: microprocessor core, analogue, keypad, receiver, transmitter, VCO, PLL, camera and vibrator motor.

The SC905 and SC905A also include battery charger IC control when paired with Semtech's stand alone battery chargers to provide a complete, cost-effective power regulation solution.

"Smart phone designs constantly add new features that require more power rails than supplied by power management ICs".

"Cellphone designers want a power solution that gives them the freedom to accommodate new loads or voltage levels and that fits in increasingly smaller designs", said Ven Shan, Vice President of Marketing for Semtech's Power Management Products.

"The SC905 and SC905A are mini PMICs that are I2C programmable to generate the output voltages for enabling compact, feature-rich cellphone designs".

Five of the ULDOs on the SC905 can generate low noise outputs in the 2.55 to 2.9V range to power noise-sensitive analogue circuitry such as audio, radio frequency or oscillator circuits.

Three of the other regulators generate outputs in the 1.35 to 2.9V voltage range and are designed for powering digital circuits.

One additional ULDO can drive up to 150mA (between 1.35 to 2.9V) to be used as a general supply or as a vibrator motor supply.

The SC905A offers the same combination of low noise and general purpose ULDOs, but offers expanded input/output voltage ranges for select ULDOs (output range up to 3.3V) allowing it to support a larger variety of CDMA chipsets.

The SC905A also contains a dedicated enable pin for the vibrator motor regulator and transceiver output.

The devices come with a power-on control pin for on/off control of the baseband processor, oscillator, keypad and audio.

Two other pins are available to power up the device when connected to a battery charger or hands-free kit.

The SC905 and SC905A feature six independent input supply pins for connection from either the battery directly or other power sources minimising regulator input-to-output voltage drops and improving overall efficiency.

The SC905 and SC905A are available immediately in production quantities and are priced at $2.44 each in 1000-piece lots.

Ordering codes are SC905MLTRT for the SC905 and SC905AMLTRT for the SC905A.

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