Analog Devices launches Linear Regulator Family

“Low-power and low-noise operation are key design challenges for mobile device designers being tasked with adding new features and functions into power-sensitive consumer, industrial and medical devices,” said Arcadio Leon, marketing director for portable power products, Analog Devices. “Part of ADI’s growing portfolio of power management solutions, the ADP120, ADP121 and ADP130 LDO trio delivers an optimized balance of low quiescent current and low noise to improve performance and extend battery life.”

The new devices are part of a family of low-noise LDOs that provide clean power to noise-sensitive mixed-signal ICs with supply currents below 350 milliamps (mA), while consuming only 11 microamps (µA) to 24 µA of quiescent current (Iq) and operating at output voltages as low as 1.2 V. All three devices are stable with a very small 1 µF ceramic output capacitor, eliminating the need for additional bypass capacitors. This reduces the amount of board space required as well as the bill-of-materials cost. The combination of signal integrity and low-power operation allows designers of lithium-battery-powered devices, such as portable audio players, digital still cameras, handheld games and personal navigation systems, to quickly and cost-effectively resolve noise issues associated with dc power management. The very low Iq, along with a shutdown current in the nanoampere range, helps to reduce parasitic drain on the battery when the application is turned off, expanding the power budget to extend battery life or allow operation of other system functions.

The ADP120 and ADP121 feature 60 dB PSR (power supply rejection) at 10 kHz, while achieving noise figures of 40 µV rms and consuming only 11 µA , making them ideal to power RF and analog circuitry in portable applications. In addition, the ADP130 offers a unique dual-supply architecture that enables excellent low dropout performance when compared to single-supply devices. Leveraging this architecture, the ADP130 can be biased from a higher input supply, while the load current is sourced from a lower input supply to reduce overall power dissipation and enable low dropout operation.

The ADP120 and ADP121 LDOs feature a low 60-mV dropout voltage for 100 mA of load current. The ADP130 features an ultra-low 17-mV dropout voltage, making it ideal for generating low output voltages for small geometry digital cores and processors used in devices such as camera modules.