3.4.1 Buck Design Considerations

The buck converter runs at a fixed nominal frequency of 3 MHz. The buck's inductor and capacitor are sized accordingly to optimize the buck converter's performance. Excessive PCB parasitics can cause instability and electrically overstress the converter. Therefore, it is important to maintain a tight layout. It is recommended to place all components on the same side of the PCB as the dsPIC®. If the same side is not physically possible, buck components can be placed on the opposite side with the same goal of minimizing parasitics. An example layout is shown in Figure 3-3.