New LDO regulators with 500mA output current achieving stable operation

ROHM has developed the BD9xxN5 Series of LDO regulator ICs with 500mA output current, featuring its proprietary ultra-stable control technology, Nano Cap. This series comprises 18 products developed for 12V/24V primary power supply applications used in automotive equipment, industrial equipment, and communication infrastructure.

In recent years, electronic devices have demanded higher density in smaller form factors at the same time. To satisfy this demand and attain space savings and design flexibility, power supply ICs must be capable of stable operation even with small-capacity capacitors. However, achieving such performance with output capacitors of 1µF or less has been technically difficult.

To manage this challenge, the company developed the BD9xxN1 Series LDO regulator (150mA output current) in 2022, including its proprietary ultra-stable control technology, Nano Cap. This innovation allows stable operation with output capacitors as small as 100nF, gaining widespread adoption across multiple applications.

The newly developed BD9xxN5 Series builds on the success of the BD9xxN1 Series by increasing the output current to 500mA – more than three times higher than before – greatly broadening its suitability for applications requiring higher power. Also, a very low output voltage ripple of approximately 250mV (with load current variation of 1mA to 500mA within 1µs) is achieved with a small output capacitance of just 470nF (typical). Beyond standard small MLCCs (multi-layer ceramic capacitors) in the range of several µF and large-capacity electrolytic capacitors, it also supports ultra-small MLCCs, such as the 0603M size (0.6mm × 0.3mm), with capacities below 1µF – where stability was previously challenging to achieve. This contributes to space saving as well as greater flexibility in component selection.