Maxim is claiming “industry’s lowest EMI performance for automotive infotainment and ADAS applications” for a pair of buck converters intended to produce 0.5-3.8V from 2.7-6V.

There are two devices, the MAX20073 which outputs up to 2A and the MAX20074 which has a 3A output. Pin-compatible ASIL variants are available.

The chips are aimed at producing low local voltages from a 5V intermediate bus, reducing the need to run multiple busses over PCBs and potentially increasing the accuracy of the required low voltage. “Output voltage can be pre-set at the factory to allow ±1.5% output voltage accuracy without the need for 0.1% external resistors”.

Set by internal resistors, the output of the ‘standard’ version is 3.3V, but other values are apparently available and the factory-set option can be anywhere across 0.5-3.8V.

Features include a spread-spectrum oscillator, synch in, forced PWM mode and skip mode.

The company claims “ultra-low quiescent current” and “higher efficiency than competitive solutions”, but you will learn neither these nor the EMI performance in this article, because Maxim coyly requires you to sign an NDA before they are revealed.

While not discussing absolute amplitudes and frequencies, a Maxim spokesman did tell Electronics Weekly that the optional spectrum spreading is +/-3%, thought to be wider than automotive competitors, and offering peak spectrum by as much as 8dB. And that hard internal FET switch-on and switch-off is avoided to control ringing on the switching node. “This is not a consumer-grade product qualified for automotive, it was designed from the start for automotive, although customers are welcome to use it outside automotive,” he said.

The architecture is current-mode.

Packaging is 3 x 3mm 10pin TDFN-EP, and operation is over -40 to +125°C ambient.

Evaluation kits MAX20073EVKIT# and MAX20074EVKIT#  are available.