DC-DC converter

A radiation and magnetic field tolerant DC-DC Point-Of-Load (POL), which enables distribution at higher voltage, with local on-detector conversion to the voltage required by the electronics, considerably decreasing the current in the cables. As main features, FEAST 2 presents bandgap, handling of dead time with adaptive logic, protection Over-Current (OVO) and Over-Temperature (OPT) and protection Input Voltage Lock Out (ULVO).

MAGICS Instruments, a Belgium company specialised in the design of radiation hardened integrated circuits has received a licence to incorporate this chip into digital rad-hard sensor networks (IoT) for nuclear and space environments.

Advantages

• Input voltage range 5 to 12V
• Continuous 4A load capability
• Integrated Power N-channel MOSFETs
• Adjustable switching frequency 1-3MHz
• Synchronous Buck topology with continuous mode operation
• High bandwidth feedback loop (150KHz) for good transient performance
• Over-Current protection
• Under-voltage lockup
• Over-Temperature protection
• Power Good output
• Enable Input
• Selectable Power Transistor size (5/5th or 2/5th) for improved efficiency at small loads (<600mA)
• Radiation tolerant: TID up to >200Mrad(Si), displacement damage up to 5.1014n/cm2 (1MeV-equivalent), continuous operation during exposure to heavy ions of LET up to 64MeVcm2mg-1 with short transients below 20% of the nominal Vout (no destructive event, no output power interruption).

Applications

• Avionics
• Space
• Nuclear industry 
• Point Of Load in distributed power systems where either radiation tolerance or magnetic field tolerance, or both, are required.