Claims
- 1. A method of testing a switching regulator with a power transistor on an integrated circuit chip for use with an application board having circuitry that includes a first inductor with a first inductance and a first capacitor with a first capacitance, comprising:providing a power transistor including a plurality of individually-addressable transistor segments on a chip; installing the chip on a testing board having circuitry that includes a second inductor with a second inductance greater than the first inductance and a second capacitor with a second capacitance less than the first capacitance; operating the circuit with the power transistor on the integrated circuit chip using less than all of the transistor segments; and measuring a closed-loop performance characteristic of the switching regulator, wherein the switching regulator is not electrically coupled to the application board while it is installed on the testing board.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance characteristic is output voltage.
- 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance characteristic is line regulation.
- 4. The method of claim 3, wherein measuring the line regulation includes measuring first and second output voltages with different input voltages.
- 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance characteristic is load regulation.
- 6. The method of claim 5, wherein measuring the load regulation includes measuring first and second output voltages with different load currents.
- 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the different load currents include a minimum load current and a modified maximum load current.
- 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the modified maximum load current is less than a maximum load current for the switching regulator when installed on an application board.
- 9. The method of claim 7, wherein the application board has a first load current, and the test board has a second load current that is less than the first load current.
- 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising removing the chip from a testing board and installing the chip on an application board having circuitry that includes a first inductor with a first inductance and a first capacitor with a first capacitance.
- 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the power transistor includes N transistor segments, and the operating step is performed using exactly one of the N transistor segments.
- 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first inductance is L and the second inductance is L*N.
- 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the first capacitance is C and the second capacitance is C/N.
- 14. The method of claim 1, further comprising measuring an on-resistance of a closed transistor segment during operation of the circuitry.
- 15. The method of claim 14, further comprising deriving an on-resistance of the power transistor from the on-resistance of the closed transistor segment.
- 16. A method of testing a switching regulator with a power transistor on an integrated circuit chip for use with an application board having circuitry that includes a first inductor with a first inductance and a first capacitor with a first capacitance, comprising:providing a power transistor including a plurality of individually-addressable transistor segments on a chip; installing the chip on a testing board having circuitry that includes a second inductor with a second inductance greater than the first inductance and a second capacitor with a second capacitance less than the first capacitance; operating the circuit with the power, transistor on the integrated circuit chip using less than all of the transistor segments; measuring a closed-loop performance characteristic of the switching regulator; removing the chip from the testing board; and installing the chip on the application board.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims priority to provisional U.S. application Ser. No. 60/218,433, filed on Jul. 14, 2000.
US Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Name |
Date |
Kind |
6031361 |
Burstein et al. |
Feb 2000 |
A |
Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60/218433 |
Jul 2000 |
US |