SLVA450B February 2011 – April 2021 TL7770-12 , TL7770-5 , TPS3513 , TPS3514 , TPS3606-33 , TPS3613-01 , TPS3617-50 , TPS3618-50 , TPS3619-33-EP , TPS3620-33-EP , TPS3805H33-EP , TPS3808-EP , TPS3818G25 , TPS386000 , TPS386000-Q1 , TPS386040 , TPS386596 , TPS60120 , TPS60121 , TPS60122 , TPS60123 , TPS60124 , TPS60125 , TPS60130 , TPS60131 , TPS60132 , TPS60133 , TPS60140 , TPS60141 , TPS60204 , TPS60205 , TPS60210 , TPS60211 , TPS60212 , TPS60213 , TPS61130 , TPS61131 , TPS62050 , TPS62051 , TPS62052 , TPS62054 , TPS62056 , TPS62110 , TPS62110-EP , TPS62111 , TPS62111-EP , TPS62112 , TPS62112-EP , TPS65000 , TPS65001 , TPS65010 , TPS65011 , TPS65012 , TPS65013 , TPS65014 , TPS65020 , TPS65021 , TPS65022 , TPS65023 , TPS650231 , TPS65023B , TPS650240 , TPS650241 , TPS650241-Q1 , TPS650242 , TPS650243 , TPS650243-Q1 , TPS650244 , TPS650245 , TPS650250 , TPS65050 , TPS65053 , TPS65055 , TPS650830 , TPS65086 , TPS65720 , TPS65721 , TPS65810 , TPS65811 , UC1543 , UC1903 , UC2543 , UCC2946 , UCC3946
An SVS monitors a critical system voltage and generates a reset if this voltage is too low. Likewise, an LBI pin monitors a voltage (typically a battery) and drives the low battery output (LBO) pin low when the battery has dropped below the set voltage. A PFI pin monitors a system voltage level and drives a power fail output (PFO) if the PFI voltage gets too low. These three pin types are simply a comparator and a reference voltage that monitor a voltage to ensure proper operation of a processor (SVS), to alert the user that the batteries must be replaced or recharged (LBI), or to send a signal to the host that some system voltage is too low and action needs to be taken (PFI). In each case, all of the voltages monitored are critical to ensure the proper operation of the entire system.
Ideally, a comparator would have infinite input impedance that produces no current at the inputs. In practice, however, a real comparator has a measurable input impedance and some degree of leakage current. These effects impact the accuracy of the trip point set by the resistive divider at the inputs, because this leakage current cannot be exactly determined and varies from device to device. When selecting the resistances, there are two extremes to consider: infinite or very low resistance. With infinite resistance, the trip point is dominated by the leakage current, which usually varies and causes a great loss in accuracy. At a very low resistance, however, amps of current are drawn through the divider, which is also unacceptable. ICs that use a resistive divider at a comparator input must have an accurate trip point and yet not consume a significant amount of current.
As a starting point for making the decision about the tradeoff of accuracy versus current consumption, a good rule of thumb is to have the current through the divider be 100 times larger than the leakage current. However, a given application may require more accuracy or require less current at the cost of reduced accuracy. In this report, an example divider circuit is analyzed using the low quiescent current, programmable-delay TPS3808G01 SVS, although the equations are applicable to any IC or circuit that uses a voltage divider at the comparator input.