Regulator Limits Dissipation While Capping

Current At The Desired Level

Electronic Design
William H. Morong
Thu, 2010-02-11 (All day)

A current-limiting regulator prevents excessive load current, but it may not prevent excessive
regulator dissipation. Many integrated regulators do protect themselves from excessive dissipation
and many provide a current limit, yet their current limits may not be at the desired current or may not
be sufficiently predictable. This regulator provides predictable output-current and regulator-power
limits, as well as undervoltage protection.
Between the regulators input rail and ground is a current source (see the figure)

comprising diode-connected Q3, R4, Q10, R12, R7, D1, R8, and R13. Current through R13 and R8
causes the base of Q10 to rise, raising its emitter, until the junction of R12 and R7 raises D1s
reference terminal to 1.24 V. D1 then draws current, limiting further rise and setting the current in
Q10 to about 6.8 mA, which is drawn through Q3 and R4.
Until the input reaches about 6.5 V, the drop across R13 is too small to energize the current source
comprising Q12, Q13, and current-setting resistor R9. That current source remains off, keeping the
entire regulator off and providing undervoltage lockout. Once a desired voltage is reached, Q13s
current is about 6 mA.

Q13s current drives the base of pass-transistor Q6, which draws its collector current through diodeconnected Q5. The current exiting through Q6s emitter passes through resistor R5 to provide current
to the load through the output terminal.
R10 and R11 divide the output voltage to D2s reference terminal. When the divided output rises
above 1.24 V, D2 draws current from Q13, denying Q6 additional base drive and preventing an
increase of the output. The effect is voltage regulation at about 5 V. R14 current limits D2. C1
decouples the load.
Q8 senses the voltage across R5. When that voltage reaches Q8s Vbe, the transistor diverts current
from Q13 to limit Q6s base and emitter current, current-limiting the regulator. Q5s Vbe approximates
the logarithm of the output current.
Q9 and pull-down resistor R3 form an emitter follower, the output of which is one diode-drop below
the emitter of Q6, compensating the drop of diode-connected Q1. Therefore, the voltage across and
current through R1 and Q1 are approximately proportional to the voltage across Q6. Consequently,
Q1s Vbe approximates the logarithm of the pass-transistor voltage, and the voltage between the input
terminal and Q1s base approximates the sum of the logarithms of the pass-transistor voltage and
current.
The current drawn by Q10 dominates the current in Q3, causing its Vbe to approximate the logarithm
of a constant. Since Q3s current density is less than that of Q5, Q10s current also passes through R4
to provide a small scaling voltage. Otherwise, Q3 might need to be operated at a wastefully high
current. Designers can adjust R4 to provide the desired scaling.
The difference between Q5s plus Q1s Vbes and the sum of Q3s Vbe and R4s drop are applied to the
Vbe of Q2. Q2s current approximates the antilog of its Vbe. So, Q2s current approximates the antilog
of the difference of the sum of the logs of the pass-transistors voltage and current and the log of a
constant. As a result, current through Q2 and R2 is proportional to the product of pass-transistor
voltage and currentthat is, pass-transistor power.
If the voltage across R2 rises to that of Q4s Vbe, Q4 turns on, diverting current from Q13 to deny the
pass-transistors additional base current, limiting regulator dissipation. C3 frequency compensates the
power-limiting loop.
The circuit requires a good thermal connection between Q3 and Q5. Since both transistors have large
collector pads, this is easily accomplished by placing their collector pads side by side on a shared
thermal pad.
Q6 should have an appropriate heatsink thermally isolated from Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q5, which together
form a simple analog power computer that is temperature sensitive. If some thermal flux to these
transistors is inevitable, Q2 and Q3 should be heated most, since heating them more than Q1 and Q5
lowers the power limit as temperature rises.
Using a large transistor for Q5 keeps its current density low enough to obtain approximately
logarithmic behavior. Q3 was chosen to match, and to solder easily near, Q5. With the values shown,
the power limit (see the table)

is about 2 W, and the current limit is about 600 mA.

The circuit naturally folds back current once the power limit is reached. The resulting drop in output
voltage increases pass-transistor voltage, so current drops. In some cases, the current limit may be
redundant, depending on the product of undervoltage lockout and maximum current.