TB093

Multiple PWM Output Soft-Start Controller For Switching

Power Supplies

Author: Justin Milks HARDWARE

Microchip Technology Inc. The hardware for the soft-start circuit is fairly simple, as
shown in Figure 2. The 0.1 μF capacitor is used for
decoupling, and the two 10k pull-down resistors are
OVERVIEW used to ensure that the PWM outputs will never be
This Technical Brief describes a microcontroller-based floating. The ramping and delay functions are
soft-start controller for power supplies in systems with implemented entirely in software and the GP1 and GP2
multiple voltages. pins provide the two PWM outputs. The CIN+ (GP0) pin
provides an under-voltage lockout, and the GP3 pin
Sometimes applications have devices with multiple provides a shutdown for the soft-start controller. The
voltage requirements (e.g., core voltages, I/O voltages, under-voltage lockout uses the on-board comparator of
etc). The sequence in which these voltages rise is the PIC10F206 to compare the input on the CIN+ pin
important. A common requirement is that one voltage against the internal 0.6V reference.
must rise and stabilize before another voltage.
The circuit described in this document operates by FIGURE 2: SOFT-START CIRCUIT
using Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to slowly SCHEMATIC
increase the amount of time the power supply is
VDD
allowed to operate. The circuit will first increase the
duty cycle of one PWM output from 0% to 100% to 0.1 μF
allow the first voltage to rise. It will then pause and 5
increase the duty cycle of the second PWM output from Under Voltage 1
GP0/CIN+ GP1
3
PWM Output #1
0% to 100% to allow the second voltage to rise, as Lockout
10K
shown in Figure 1. While doing this, an active-low
shutdown pin will be polled to ensure that the voltage
6 4
on the under-voltage lockout pin is above 0.6V. Shutdown GP3 GP2 PWM Output #2
10K

FIGURE 1: TIMING DIAGRAM 2

V1 Note: Assumes SOT-23 Packaging.

The soft-start sequence will not begin until both of the

following conditions are met:
V2
1. The voltage on CIN+ (GP0) rises above 0.6V
2. The shutdown pin (GP3) is held at VDD
PWM1 Once these conditions are met, the sequence begins
and the first PWM output begins to ramp from 0% to
100%, resulting in the output being held high. The
PWM2 second PWM will ramp from 0% to 100% and both
PWM outputs will be held high until either one of the
two conditions above are not met.
1 2 3 4 5
1. Start-up conditions met
2. Initial delay
3. PWM Ramp #1 complete
4. Between PWM delay
5. PWM #2 complete

© 2005 Microchip Technology Inc. DS91093A-page 1

TB093
SOFTWARE The resolution of the PWM is around 3 μs; that is, every
iteration the PWM signal’s high time will increase by
Two software solutions have been provided. The first 3 μs, and the low time will decrease by 3 μs. The
software solution (which is further described below) under-voltage and shutdown conditions are continu-
uses decrement loops to provide the software delay. ously monitored, allowing the soft-start to be aborted.
The second software solution uses the same method
After the first PWM output ramp has completed, a soft-
found in Technical Brief TB081, “Soft-Start Controller
ware delay is used to provide a small amount of time
for Switching Power Supplies”, (DS91081), for
until the second PWM output ramp begins. The second
producing software delays using a jump table.
ramp functions just as the first and will be aborted if the
This particular solution will control the shutdown pins of soft-start conditions are not met.
two power supplies in order to provide a user
Finally, the software holds both outputs high and
specifiable soft-start time. The delay between PWM
continuously checks for shutdown or under-voltage
outputs and before soft-start begins can be customized
conditions.
by the user. Furthermore, the design provides both an
active-low shutdown pin and an under-voltage lockout • PWM1_STEPS – Determines the number of steps
pin. The timing is controlled by four definitions: to use to bring the first ramp from 0% to 100%.
Increasing the number of steps will increase the
Solution 1 amount of time needed for the ramp to complete.
(See Equation 1 below to calculate the amount of
This software solution uses decrement loops to provide time the PWM ramp will take.)
software delay. It is relatively simple and consists of a • PWM2_STEPS – Determines the number of steps
small number of sections which will execute sequen- to use for the second ramp.
tially under normal conditions. (See the flow diagram in
• INITIAL_PAUSE – Determines the number of
Figure 3).
steps to pause after the soft-start conditions are
1. An initialization section, which presets variables met before the first ramp begins (see Equation 2).
and configures peripherals • BETWEEN_PAUSE – Determines the number of
2. A loop which waits until both soft-start conditions steps to pause after the first ramp has completed
are met before starting the second ramp.
3. A delay before soft-start begins The approximate length of the PWM ramp is shown in
4. First ramping PWM routine to generate output Equation 1.
pulses
5. A delay before the second soft-start begins EQUATION 1:
6. Second ramping PWM routine to generate
output pulses (Number of steps)Λ2 * 3 μS
7. A final loop which ensures that both soft-start
conditions are met The approximate length of the delays can be
The initialization section is used to set GP1 and GP2 as determined as shown in Equation 2.
outputs, GP3 as an input and enables the comparator
so that CIN+ (GP0) can be used to detect an under EQUATION 2:
voltage condition.
The first loop checks the status of the shutdown pin and (Number of steps + 1) * 750 μS
the comparator output. If a shutdown or under-voltage
condition exists, the microcontroller will be held in a
wait state. Once both conditions for soft-start have If either of the delays is set to zero, the software will
been met, the microcontroller begins to execute the skip the delay portion completely and there will be no
software to generate the ramping PWM. added software delay.

The ramping PWM signal is generated by a software Note: These timing equations assume that a 4
delay. The PWM output is varied by setting a variable MHz oscillator is being used.
and decrementing until it reaches zero. The variables
DutyCycleHigh and DutyCycleLow are used to control
the PWM ramp. Initially DutyCycleHigh is set to zero
and DutyCycleLow is at maximum. With each iteration,
DutyCycleHigh is incremented while DutyCycleLow is
decremented.

DS91093A-page 2 © 2005 Microchip Technology Inc.

 TB093
FIGURE 3: SOFTWARE FLOWCHART In order to maximize the size of the jump table, any
sections of software that are not related to the jump
Reset table have been moved to the memory address, 0x100.
This higher memory contains all the initialization proce-
dures used before and after the jump table, and
Preset Variables contains the delays between PWM ramps. Should
and Peripherals either of the added software delays be set to zero, the
No No code will be skipped entirely and there will be no added
software delay.
Start Please refer to Technical Brief TB081, “Soft-Start
Conditions Controller for Switching Power Supplies” (DS91081)
Met? for more information on implementing a soft-start
controller using jump tables.
Yes
To download the complete source code, for both
Delay software solutions, go to Microchip’s web site at
www.microchip.com.

Ramp PWM #1 CONCLUSION

Start Conditions
Checked within Systems with multiple voltages can benefit from small
Each Block microcontrollers, such as the PIC10F206. The
Delay as well PICmicro® MCU can be used to control the sequence
in which the voltages in the system are allowed to rise.
They can be added to an existing design with a minimal
Ramp PWM #2 increase in complexity or cost.
This particular solution will control the shutdown pins of
Yes two power supplies in order to provide a user
specifiable soft-start time. The delay between PWM
outputs and before soft-start begins can be customized
Start
by the user. Furthermore the design provides both an
Conditions
active-low shutdown pin and an under-voltage lockout
Met?
pin.

MEMORY USAGE
Solution 2
Memory usage for the first software solution (using
This software solution uses jump tables to generate the
software decrement loops) is 4 bytes RAM and 49
PWM output.
words Flash memory. Because the memory usage is so
One of the advantages of this method is the fact that small, this application could easily be implemented on
the PWM steps are smaller. The high time will increase a PIC10F204 which is more cost effective than the
by 1 μs every iteration, and the low time will decrease PIC10F206.
by 1 μs. However, the disadvantage is the fact that the
Memory usage for the second software solution is 4
PWM ramp-up time is limited to 118 steps, resulting in
bytes RAM. The amount of Flash memory that is
a maximum ramp-up time of less than 13 ms. The
required is as follows:
maximum ramp-up time for the other software solution
is around 400 ms, not including the delays between
ramps. EQUATION 3:
The code used for this solution was taken and modified
63+(PWM1_STEPS * 2-1)+(PWM2_STEPS * 2-1) words
slightly from Technical Brief TB081, “Soft-Start Control-
ler for Switching Power Supplies” (DS91081). As
described in this Technical Brief, the maximum size of The number of PWM steps will determine the size of
the jump table is limited by the size of the table that can the jump table. Because of this, memory usage will
be accessed by the 8-bit Special Function Register vary with the number of PWM steps.
(SFR) Program Counter Low (PCL). For the given
software, that limits the maximum sum of steps to 118
(e.g., PWM1_STEPS + PWM2_STEPS = 118).

© 2005 Microchip Technology Inc. DS91093A-page 3

TB093
NOTES:

DS91093A-page 4 © 2005 Microchip Technology Inc.

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© 2005 Microchip Technology Inc. DS91093A-page 5

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DS91093A-page 6 © 2005 Microchip Technology Inc.