THS3202 Thermal Pad

Roger,

The thermal pad is dielectriacally isolated from the active devices on the chip. Connecting to Vs- is acceptable.

The thermal pad is provided as a means to efficiently dissipate heat from the die, so the primary concern is to be sure Vs- is a large enough structure so that heat is quickly conducted out of the device. The data sheet has power pad design guidelines starting on page 22. Everything there should be considered Note item #4 says to tie to the ground plane. This recommendation is for thermal reasons and not electrical, where it is assumed the largest heat dissipating structure will be the ground plane .

Jim,

Thanks. I'm running the device between 0V & +15V

R