ISL8117

FN8666 Rev 4.00

Page 16 of 24

Apr 19, 2018

Gate Driver

The low-side gate driver is supplied from VCC5V and provides a 2A

peak sink and source current. The high-side gate driver is also

capable of delivering the same currents as the low-side gate driver.

Gate-drive voltage for the upper N-channel MOSFET is generated

by a flying capacitor boot circuit. A boot capacitor connected from

the BOOT pin to the PHASE node provides power to the high-side

MOSFET driver. To limit the peak current in the IC, an external

resistor can be placed between the BOOT pin and the boot

capacitor. This small series resistor also damps any oscillations

caused by the resonant tank of the parasitic inductances in the

traces of the board and the FET’s input capacitance.

At start-up, the low-side MOSFET turns on first and forces PHASE

to ground in order to charge the BOOT capacitor to 5V. After the

low-side MOSFET turns off, the high-side MOSFET is turned on by

closing an internal switch between BOOT and UGATE. This

provides the necessary gate-to-source voltage to turn on the

upper MOSFET, an action that boosts the 5V gate drive signal

drawn from the internal 5V regulator.

For optimal EMI performance or reducing phase node ringing, a

small resistor might be placed between the BOOT pin to the

positive terminal of the bootstrap capacitor.

Adaptive Dead Time

The ISL8117 incorporates an adaptive dead time algorithm on

the synchronous buck PWM controller that optimizes operation

with varying MOSFET conditions. This algorithm provides

approximately 16ns dead time between the switching of the

upper and lower MOSFETs. This dead time is adaptive and allows

operation with different MOSFETs without having to externally

adjust the dead time using a resistor or capacitor. During turn-off

of the lower MOSFET, the LGATE voltage is monitored until it

reaches a threshold of 1V, at which time the UGATE is released to

rise. Adaptive dead time circuitry monitors the upper MOSFET

gate voltage during UGATE turn-off. Once the upper MOSFET

gate-to-source voltage has dropped below a threshold of 1V, the

LGATE is allowed to rise. It is recommended to not use a resistor

between UGATE and LGATE and the respective MOSFET gates as

it may interfere with the dead time circuitry.

Internal Bootstrap Diode

The ISL8117 has an integrated bootstrap diode to help reduce

total cost and reduce layout complexity. Simply adding an

external capacitor across the BOOT and PHASE pins completes

the bootstrap circuit. The bootstrap capacitor can be chosen from

Equation 6.

charge the gate of the upper MOSFET. The

as the allowable droop in the rail of the upper drive.

As an example, suppose an upper MOSFET has a gate charge

voltage over a PWM cycle is 200mV. Based on the calculation, a

bootstrap capacitance of at least 0.125µF is required. The next

larger standard value capacitance of 0.22µF should be used. A

good quality ceramic capacitor is recommended.

The internal bootstrap Schottky diode has a resistance of 1.5Ω

could lead to the boot capacitor charging insufficiently in cases

where the bottom MOSFET is turned on for a very short period of

time. If such circumstances are expected, an additional external

Schottky diode may be added from VCC5V to the positive of the

fast turn-on of the upper MOSFET.

Power-Good Indicator

The power-good pin can be used to monitor the status of the

output voltage. PGOOD will be true (open drain) 1.1ms after the

FB pin is within ±11% of the reference voltage.

There is no extra delay when the PGOOD pin is pulled LOW.

Protection Circuits

The converter output is monitored and protected against

overload, light-load, and undervoltage conditions.

Undervoltage Lockout

The ISL8117 includes UVLO protection, which keeps the device in

a reset condition until a proper operating voltage is applied. It

also shuts down the ISL8117 if the operating voltage drops below

a predefined value. The controller is disabled when UVLO is

asserted. When UVLO is asserted, PGOOD is valid and will be

deasserted.

BOOT

UGATE

PHASE

VCC_5V

VIN

ISL8117

FIGURE 31. UPPER GATE DRIVER CIRCUIT

OPTIONAL

EXTERNAL

SCHOTTKY

BOOT

V

BOOT

------------------------



(EQ. 6)