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LTC3350 refuses to charge

Category: Hardware
Product Number: LTC3350
Software Version: Not Applicable

I have a circuit using LTC3350 that is showing odd behavior and wonder if anyone could help me resolve the issue?

When Vin is increased from 0V to 12V the capacitors do not start charging. This behavior is consistent across all boards. The prototype worked reliably, but maybe this was a fluke?

When probing the design to try to find the issue I have found that touching the PFI pin sometimes kicks the design into life and the capacitors then charge perfectly.

Looking at the SW node, as I gradually increase Vin from 0V to 12V the SW node starts switching when I reach ~5V (at 500KHz as expected). However when I get past 11V it suddenly stops and the charger sits there doing nothing (see images)

I've run out of things to try! I can't see anything wrong with the schematic, maybe I'm missing something?

The design intent is as follows:

1/ Vcap ~10V

2/ Switches over to back-up mode when Vin falls below ~9.9V

3/ Charge current limit set to 4A, but total current limited to 640mA (expectation is ~150mA load and 500mA left over for charging)

4/ Backup voltage is 12V

Parents
  • Hi, it is definitely not the 2V5 supply as I already did the capacitor on top of the IC and even tried with additional caps and it didn't help (2V5 looked very clean too). It definitely feels like it starts charging then immediately decides against it, so the peak current issue sounds feasible. It also explains why we only see this when the caps are FULLY discharged. With some charge already in them we don't see the issue (lower peak current I assume?) Thanks

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  • Hi, it is definitely not the 2V5 supply as I already did the capacitor on top of the IC and even tried with additional caps and it didn't help (2V5 looked very clean too). It definitely feels like it starts charging then immediately decides against it, so the peak current issue sounds feasible. It also explains why we only see this when the caps are FULLY discharged. With some charge already in them we don't see the issue (lower peak current I assume?) Thanks

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