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 & Applications

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. 

Specifications

Find specifications by following this link.

Inventors
Federico Faccio
Licensing
Know-how