© 2008 Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation www.fairchildsemi.com
FSQ500L • Rev. 1.0.3 9
FSQ500L — Compact, Green Mode, Fairchild Power Switch (FPS™)
3.1 Overload Protection (OLP): Overload is defined as
the load current exceeding its normal level due to an
unexpected abnormal event. In this situation, the
protection circuit should trigger to protect the SMPS.
However, even when the SMPS is in the normal
operation, the overload protection circuit can be
triggered during the load transition. To avoid this
undesired operation, the overload protection circuit is
designed to trigger after a specified time to determine
whether the situation is transient or a true overload.
Because of the pulse-by-pulse current limit capability,
the maximum peak current through the senseFET is
limited and, therefore, the maximum input power is
restricted with a given input voltage. If the output
consumes more than this maximum power, the output
voltage (VO) decreases below the set voltage. This
reduces the current through the opto-coupler LED,
which also reduces the opto-coupler transistor current,
thus increasing the feedback voltage (VFB). If VFB
exceeds 2.7V, D1 is blocked and the 5µA current source
starts to charge CB slowly up to VCC. In this condition,
VFB continues increasing until it reaches 4.5V, when the
switching operation is terminated, as shown in Figure
18. The delay time for shutdown is the time required to
charge CB from 2.7V to 4.5V with 5µA. In general, a 10
~ 50ms delay time is typical for most applications. This
protection is implemented in auto restart mode.
VFB
t
2.7V
4.5V
Overload protection
T12= CB*(4.5-2.7)/IDELAY
T1T2
Figure 18. Overload Protection
3.2 Thermal Shutdown (TSD): The senseFET and the
control IC in one package makes it easy for the control
IC to detect an abnormal over temperature of the
senseFET. When the temperature exceeds
approximately 140°C, the thermal shutdown triggers.
When TSD triggers, delay current is disabled, switching
operation stops, and VCC through the internal high-
voltage current source is set to 5.7V from 6.5V, as
shown in Figure 19. Since TSD signal prohibits the
senseFET from switching, there is no switching until the
junction temperature decreases sufficiently. If the
junction temperature is lower than 60°C typically, TSD
signal is removed and VCC is set to 6.5V again. While
VCC increases from 5.7V to 6.5V, the soft-start function
makes the senseFET turn on and off with no voltage
and/or current stress.
Fault
situation
5.7V
6.0V
VCC
VDS
t
TSD
occurs
TSD
removed
Normal
operation
Normal
operation
Power
on
6.5V
Figure 19. Over-Temperature Protection (OTP)
4. Soft-Start: The soft-start time is tuned by an external
VCC capacitor (CA), which increases PWM comparator
non-inverting input voltage together with the senseFET
current slowly after it starts up. Before VCC reaches
VSTART, CA is charged by the current ICH-ISTART, where ICH
and ISTART are described in Figure 15. After VCC reaches
VSTART, all internal blocks are activated, so that the
current consuming inside IC becomes IOP. Therefore, CA
is charged by the current ICH-IOP, which makes the
increasing slope of VCC become sluggish. VCC is shifted
by 6.0V negatively (it is performed in soft-start block in
Figure 2), and then VCC -6.0V is an input of one of the
input terminals of the PWM comparator. The drain
current follows VCC -6.0V instead of the VFB* because of
the low-dominant feature of the PWM comparator. The
soft-start time can be made long or short by selecting
CA, as described in Figure 20. During tS/S, IDELAY is
disabled to avoid unwanted OLP. Typically, tS/S is
around 4.6ms with 27µF of CA.
6V
5V
VCC
t
VSTART
VSTOP
VCCREG
t1t2
t1=CA×6V/(ICH-ISTART) tS/S=CA×0.5V/(ICH-IOP)
6.5V
tS/S
Figure 20. Soft-Start Function
The peak value of the drain current of the power
switching device is progressively increased to establish
the correct working conditions for transformers,
inductors, and capacitors. The voltage on the output
capacitors is progressively increased with the intention
of smoothly establishing the required output voltage. It
also helps to prevent transformer saturation and reduce
stress on the secondary diode during startup.