STMicroelectronics announces efficient and flexible 40V industrial and automotive linear regulators

STMicroelectronics‘ LDH40 and LDQ40 voltage regulators are designed for automotive and industrial applications. These regulators may be powered on with an input voltage as low as 3.3V and can function with a maximum applied voltage of 40V. Additionally, they feature a low quiescent current. The LDH40 provides a maximum current of 200mA and is offered in a single variant with a variable output voltage range of 1.2V to 22V. The LDQ40, which has a current rating of 250mA, offers an adjustable output range of 1.2V to 12V. Additionally, it provides fixed output voltages of 1.8V, 2.5V, 3.3V, and 5.0V for users to choose from.

These low-dropout (LDO) regulators provide efficient power conversion for energy-efficiency applications. The 2µA quiescent current at 0% load and 300nA logic-controlled shutdown mode effectively conserves battery energy in always-on standby systems. A tiny ceramic capacitor is used to steady the devices on the output.

The automotive devices have undergone AEC-Q100 qualification and are packaged as 2mm x 2mm DFN6L devices with wettable flanks, which make PCB design easier and enable automated optical inspection. Their broad input-voltage range enables them to be connected to a 12V bus in a car, which can experience transient voltages of up to 40V. This allows them to provide power to infotainment systems, instrument clusters, and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). Due to their little quiescent and standby current, these devices are particularly well-suited for electric vehicle applications.

All of the low-dropout regulators (LDOs) possess system protection and management capabilities, such as internal current limitation, thermal protection, soft-start, and output active discharge. The shutdown control is facilitated by an enable pin, while diagnostic monitoring is performed through a power-good pin. The LDQ40 devices are equipped with short-circuit protection.

04.09.2024

04.03.2024

03.26.2024

The LDH40 automotive-grade regulator is now being manufactured in the DFN6L wettable flank package. The LDQ40 regulators, which have adjustable output, are currently being produced in both industrial and automotive grades. They are available in the normal DFN6L package and wettable-flank package specifically designed for automotive applications. The LDQ40 automotive parts with fixed output voltages of 1.8V, 2.5V, 3.3V, and 5.0V will be released in the second quarter. Industrial LDQ40 with 3.3V and 5.0V options will be made accessible by the third quarter.

Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio holds a Ph. D. in Physics and is a Telecommunications Engineer. He has worked on various international projects in the field of gravitational waves research, designing a thermal compensation system (TCS) and data acquisition and control systems, and on others about x-ray microbeams in collaboration with Columbia University, high voltage systems and space technologies for communications and motor control with ESA/INFN. TCS has been applied to the Virgo and LIGO experiments, which detected gravitational waves for the first time and earned the Nobel Prize in 2017. Since 2007, he has been a reviewer for scientific publications for academics such as Microelectronics Journal and IEEE journals. Moreover, he has collaborated with different electronic industry companies and several Italian and English blogs and magazines, such as Electronics World, Elektor, Mouser, Automazione Industriale, Electronic Design, All About Circuits, Fare Elettronica, Elettronica Oggi, and PCB Magazine, as a technical writer/editor, specializing in several topics of electronics and technology. From 2015 to 2018, he was the editor-in-chief of Firmware and Elettronica Open Source, which are technical blogs and magazines for the electronics industry. He participated in many conferences as a speaker of keynotes for different topics such as x-ray, space technologies, and power supplies. Maurizio enjoys writing and telling stories about Power Electronics, Wide Bandgap Semiconductors, Automotive, IoT, Embedded, Energy, and Quantum Computing. Maurizio has been an AspenCore content editor since 2019. He is currently editor-in-chief of Power Electronics News and EEWeb and a correspondent for EE Times. He is the host of PowerUP, a podcast about power electronics, and the promoter and organizer of the PowerUP Virtual Conference, a summit where each year great speakers talk about the power electronics design trends. Moreover, he has contributed to a number of technical and scientific articles as well as a couple of Springer books on energy harvesting and data acquisition and control systems.