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TMS320 or UCD3138 for Digital Power?

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: UCD3138

I have developed a multi output buck converter using a Delfino in the control loop.  Now I am trying to determine if it is a better solution to use a UCD3138 digital control IC instead. I have been all over TIs website and I am having difficulty determining the advantages/disadvantages of each.  I think the UCD3138 does not allow for on the fly PID calculations where the TMS320 of course does. Is this a fair assumption?  Can anyone provide a concise comparison or point me in the right direction. Thank you.

  • It's really hard to say which is better for a specific application without lots more information. I'm only really familiar with the UCD3138 myself, so I can't really compare.

    I'm not sure what you mean by on the fly PID calculations.

    If you mean the PID calculations for running the control loop, the UCD3138 can do those very quickly, because it has dedicated hardware specifically to do PID calculations. It has an integrated state machine which closely integrates the error ADCs, the PIDs, the DWPMs, and the fault handling. You can actually run 3 PID filters in parallel at 2 MHz.

    The decision may well come down to whether the specific pin configuration and peripherals match your application better, and which device you are more familiar with. Both devices should be able to handle a multi-output buck converter just fine.