with Kelly Consoer

Modern FPGAs and servers operating at low voltages are sensitive to subtle supply drops. The droop may result from a combination of excess regulator noise, insufficient bandwidth in the supply regulator, excess ESR & ESL in the decoupling components, or distributed inductance in the power distribution.

To abate the risk of supply droop the typical approach is to surround the processor with an assortment of ceramic and bulk capacitors, thereby lending broadband support to the supplies with capacitors. This consumes board area and component budget.

Linear Technology’s LT3070 is a POL regulator designed for FPGA & server applications. The LT3070 commands high bandwidth and fast transient performance by providing lower output impedance than bulk capacitors, thus eliminating the need for bulk capacitors. With the LT3070, the distributed decoupling network is reduced to just a few small ceramic capacitors. The high bandwidth combined with a 25uVRMS noise floor, make the LT3070 the fastest, quietest, lowest dropout, and most cost effective 5A monolithic linear regulator in the industry.