AirPrime - Optimal Power Supply for 2G, 3G and 4G Applications - Application Note

This document includes a brief presentation of 2G/3G focused on the current consumption, to better understand the involved constraints on the power supply and the possible impact on the GSM standard conformance.

This document does not include EMC (EN 301489-1 /EN 301489-7) or Electrical Safety (EN 60950-1) aspects which should be considered with the same level of importance during the design. Compliance with these requirements can also lead to a certification failure (particularly EMC) and as a result should be considered equally during the design phase.

A list of known voltage regulators are discussed with their respective advantages and disadvantages using different topologies which are applicable to various customer applications.Increasingly, the design of an electronic circuit is subject to EMC rules which lead us to incorporate non-essential elements for the good working of the developed function, but essential for environmental contexts.

Similarly, the PCB design must meet certain routing rules for preserving the integrity of the protections implemented and for limiting, as much as possible, the causes of disturbances (poor gnd plan, noisy tracks [power supplies, digital signals, clocks, ...]). Reason for why we will discuss the topic of routing by giving some tips.

Finally a discussion on the power dissipation and thermal analysis is provided.