Intersil Unveils First USB-C Buck-Boost Voltage Regulator

Single-chip ISL95338 replaces two converters, enables USB PD3.0 bidirectional voltage regulation for tablets, ultrabooks and power banks

Milpitas, Calif., Oct. 10, 2017 – Intersil, a subsidiary of Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), today announced the industry’s first buck-boost voltage regulator for tablets, ultrabooks, power banks, and other mobile devices using the reversible USB Type-C™ connector. The ISL95338 bidirectional voltage regulator accepts input power from a wide range of DC power sources–AC/DC power adapters, USB power delivery (PD3.0) ports, travel adapters, power banks–and converts it to a regulated voltage up to 24V. The ISL95338 can also convert a wide range of DC power sources to a regulated 20V at its power adapter input. The ISL95338 supports the USB-C ecosystem with buck-mode, boost-mode, and buck-boost mode, and is flexible enough to use in any USB-C power management application.

The single-chip ISL95338 replaces two voltage converters currently used for bidirectional buck and boost modes to reduce a customer’s bill of materials (BOM) cost by 50%. It leverages Intersil’s patented R3™ modulation technology to deliver acoustic noise-free operation, superior light-load efficiency and ultra-fast transient response. Intersil’s R3 extends battery life by combining the best features of fixed-frequency pulse width modulation (PWM) and hysteretic PWM to maximize power efficiency. The ISL95338 is also USB 3.1-compliant and provides serial communication through SMBus/I2C, allowing designers to program several input/output current and voltage slew rate settings to create a customized solution.

“The new ISL95338 USB-C buck-boost voltage regulator allows our customers to implement new product designs with much smaller form factors, faster battery charging and remarkably longer battery life,” said Andrew Cowell, vice president of Intersil’s Battery & Optical Systems products. “Mobile computing customers count on Intersil’s battery charging and power management innovations to create their next generation, highly differentiated products.”

The ISL95338 is fully compliant to the USB PD3.0 standard and supports programmable power supply (PPS) fast charging with bidirectional 5V to 20V buck, boost or buck-boost modes. Multiple ISL95338 ICs can be combined with the ISL95521A combo battery charger or ISL9238 buck-boost battery charger to enable simultaneous multiport USB-C charging. The ISL95338 can also be used with the R9A02G011 USB PD controller and RAJ240045 fuel gauge IC for a complete USB-C power delivery solution.

Key Features and Specifications of ISL95338
•       Provides bidirectional buck, boost, and buck-boost operation
•       In forward mode, input voltage range is 3.8V to 24V and output voltage is up to 20V with no dead zone
•       Up to 1MHz switching frequency, and automatically reduces switching frequency with no audible acoustic noise when charger is in DCM mode
•       Programmable soft-start
•       LDO output for VDD and VDDP
•       System status alert function, and bidirectional internal discharge function
•       Active switching for negative voltage transitions
•       Bypass mode in both directions, forward mode enable and reverse mode enable
•       Fast swap allows one port to quickly swap from source to sink
•       Bidirectional internal input/output node discharge
•       SMBus and auto-increment I2C compatible
•       Full protection against undervoltage, overvoltage, overcurrent, and overtemperature

Pricing and Availability
The ISL95338 buck-boost voltage regulator is available now in a 4mm x 4mm TQFN package and is priced at $3.36 USD in 1k quantities. For more information on the ISL95338, please visit https://www.intersil.com/products/isl95338.

About Intersil
Intersil, a subsidiary of Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), is a leading provider of innovative power management and precision analog solutions. The company’s products form the building blocks of increasingly intelligent, mobile and power hungry electronics, enabling advances in power management to improve efficiency and extend battery life. With a deep portfolio of intellectual property and a rich history of design and process innovation, Intersil is the trusted partner to leading companies in some of the world’s largest markets, including industrial and infrastructure, mobile computing, automotive and aerospace. For more information about Intersil, visit our website at https://www.intersil.com.