Safe and Secure SW Controlled Digital LDO

Inhalt:
Today’s LDO design is incorporating multiple analog and/or digital control loops to achieve accurate steady state and/or fast transient response. In this paper proposed LDO is utilizing a redundant dual loop concept driven by software (SW) to achieve a highly flexible LDO with accurate steady state and fast transient response for a variety of automotive applications. In this application space the demand for safe ASIL-D according to ISO 26262 supply is growing rapidly due to increased usage of advanced driver assistance systems e.g. RADAR, LIDAR and camera in future autonomous vehicles. Security is also becoming a key feature as well for next generation cars. The specially designed PMICs can provide safe supply, but often lack additional LDO outputs needed by different automotive applications. This paper proposes a safe and secure SW driven LDO to fit the future automotive application demands. An application example based on automotive wide range RADAR application is used to demonstrate the characteristics of this new type of LDO.