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Robert Taylor1

Mar 28, 2014

LM5122

TPS40090

power management
IC

power
tips

power supply
designs

pmp2445

csd18501

PMP4538

power
reference designs

UCC27324

UCC27201

pmp7837

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Power Tips: Power Supplies for Car Audio

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When I was in high school, I worked at a local fast food restaurant.
Rather than save the money I earned for college, or something else more
practical, I invested in something else - car audio.

I had a Toyota Corolla with a hatchback. It was a junker (a perfect first
car).  Over the course of a couple of years, I saved and upgraded and
eventually had a stereo system in my car that was worth more than the car
itself.  It was an impressive system and LOUD!  I drove that car all
through college and for the first two years I worked at TI.  Eventually, I
out grew the car and stereo system, but I still have a place in my heart high
performance car audio.

Aftermarket Car Audio system (not mine, but
similar!)

The main power source in a car system is the car battery and alternator. It
is a 12V system with an alternator that runs at approximately 14.4V. The sound
system environment is also pretty nasty in terms of voltage transients.  In
order to make the windows shake, you will need a lot of power.

There are many components to a car audio system: head units, amplifiers,
equalizers, etc.  All of these components require power.  For the sake
of this blog, we are going to focus on the highest power devices, the
amplifiers. The newest amplifiers use class D power stages, which means, the
sound system requires a voltage that is higher than the battery or alternator
voltage in the car. In this case, a boost power supply makes the most sense. It
is not uncommon for a power amplifier to be capable of 500 to 1000W of output
power. Operating from a 12V input, the input current for the boost converter
with 1000W of output power is close to 100A!

A boost converter with 100A of input current is no simple task.  To make
this task easier, you can use one of a number of PowerLab designs and ICs. In order to handle the amount of
power, a multiphase approach is necessary.  I wrote a previous blog
covering the advantages of a multiphase approach see it here. Based on the high output voltage and power levels, a
non-synchronous approach can be used and still achieve efficiencies over 90%.
The TPS4009x family of controllers can be used in a 2, 3 or 4 phase boost
design. In some cases, a synchronous approach can provide better efficiency with
slightly more complexity. The LM5122 is a synchronous boost controller that is capable of
multiphase operation.

The block diagram shows a four phase design with 4 x LM5122
devices plus 8 x CSD18501 MOSFETs.  This design is perfect for a high
efficiency car audio application. You can find this design in PowerLab along with several others for car audio
amplifiers:

PMP2445: TPS40090 + 2x UCC27324 – This design generates 24V at 13A from 8 to 18.5V
input.  This is a four phase non synchronous boost design.

PMP4538: TPS40090 + 4x UCC27201 –
This design generates 28V at 20A from 11 to 18V input2.  This is a four
phase non synchronous boost design.

PMP7837: 4x LM5122 + 8x CSD18501 – This design generates 24V at 450W from 6 to 17V
input.  This is a four phase synchronous boost design.  The
synchronous operation allows for up 96% efficiency.

Do you ever build your own car audio systems? What has your experience
been? What do you think of these designs?

See all PowerLab Notes here.

Jim Ashby

I have a design which is used in a chemical reaction chamber, and requires
0-36 VDC @ 40 Amps.  The power will be PWM into the Reactor, from 0-100%
at a rate of 15KHZ.  Could one of the automotive Boost designs be used to
accomplish these design requirements?

If it can would you recommend the design changes to make this work.

I have a working PWM control circuit already working.

I appreciate your assistance in this matter.

Apr 6, 2014

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Robert Taylor1

Hi Jim,

Thanks for reading the post and the comments.  I think it will be
difficult to use the boost in this application.  The boost converter
always has to have an output voltage that is higher than the input voltage.
In your requirements you need to go all the way to 0V.  What is the
range for the input voltage?

Thanks,

Robert

Apr 7, 2014

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Victor Ceron

Hello Robert,

This is an excellent post that shows how TI offers full automotive
solutions to its customers, including devices for power, computing and signal
chain.

I would like to add that TI's portfolio of Automotive Class-D Audio
Amplifiers offer several features including: top of the line power efficiency,
Load-Dump Protection (up to 50 V), complete automotive diagnostics suite and
compliance to the tough EMC standards of the automotive industry (including
CISPR-25).

Notable new releases, for the automotive infotainment market, include TI's:
Single-Ended-input/Quad-channel/25-W Class-D Amplifier TAS5414C-Q1 (http://www.ti.com/product/tas5414c-q1);
Differential-input/Quad-channel/25-W Class-D Amplifier TAS5424C-Q1 (http://www.ti.com/product/tas5424c-q1) and
Stereo/50-W Class-D Amplifier TPA3116D2 (http://www.ti.com/product/tpa3116d2).

Apr 14, 2014

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