MC34063: A tough lesson

As a keen electronics hobbyist, I have designed some 50 or so PCBs to date. In each instance where a switching regulator is required, I’m typically reaching for one of two options: Where efficiency isn’t important – the trusty old LM2596, or when efficiency is required, I’ll be using a design from Linear Technology with synchronous rectification.

On my last two boards however, for reasons I am myself not entirely sure of (cost perhaps?) I used an MC34063. It’s been with us since the dinosaurs roamed the earth, and is unsurprisingly very primitive. It should have been designated to the dustbin of history, but thanks to the internet and the renascence of electronics in the hobbyist space, it has made an aggressive comeback, and for a simple reason: It’s dirt cheap.

My MC34063 was deployed on the PCB with the above circuit, lifted unchanged from the datasheet. It just so happened that I need 5V at 500mA max, from a 24-28V source. Perfect. What could possibly go wrong?

There is one very important thing we must consider when using this chip: It has absolutely no built-in thermal protection. The above circuit does have over-current protection, but this does not offer any protection from sustained short circuits. In many cases that isn’t a problem, but on this board it was.

Since I originally published this article – a reader has pointed out that there is a pin-compatible replacement for these regulators which has thermal protection: NCP3063 by ON Semiconductor.

From looking at the photo, we can see that there’s quite a bit of burned out stuff, making it a little difficult to piece together exactly what happened. Fortunately it all unfolded before my very eyes. The problem started with something that was nothing to do with the MC34063. See those two rectangular capacitors?  One of them is particularly toasty indeed.

That capacitor is an AVX “TAJ” series 330uF 10V tantalum. It had developed an internal short circuit which caused the MC34063 to gradually heat up, eventually reaching a point where its internals melted, then becoming a short circuit its self.

Once the MC34063 became a short circuit, the 25V input voltage surged straight through to the 5V secondary, bear in mind that, that voltage is coming from a bank of large lead acid batteries.

Both pairs of batteries were protected with battery fuses, but those were 15A a piece, as this is a very high power setup, also on the PCB was a 30A maxi blade fuse. Surely one of those would have blown? Nope. When silicon melts to the point of becoming a short circuit, there is typically still a few ohms of resistance, which in this case was not enough to blow any fuses.

What happens next? BOOM! The short circuiting of the MC34063 unleashed 25V @ ~40A of potential at that shorted capacitor, which promptly exploded, ejecting a significant amount of fire and hot gasses in the process. In the picture you can clearly see the internals of it have become a melted blob of metal, transforming it into a very effective short circuit.

The last phase of destruction was the MC34063 its self burning to a cinder, as it is now the weakest part of the circuit, doing significant damage to the PCB in the process.

It’s at this point that you start recounting exactly what is attached to the 5V rail, because it is likely now toast. The tantalum capacitor must have briefly been open circuit because all 10 ICs fed from the 5V rail were completely destroyed, as well as all of the chips on a second PCB also fed from this regulator, requiring hours of rework to replace them all. Just as well there was nothing expensive connected to it.

Lessons learned

  • When using an MC34063, or anything else without built-in protection – short out its output for a few minutes and see what happens. If you find yourself staring at a mess like the above, sort it out. Don’t ever assume it won’t happen.
  • In cases like this where the system is fed from batteries, protected by large fuses – add a second smaller fuse i.e. 500mA before small circuits like this.
  • In my case I have ditched the MC34063 and replaced with with a Wurth 173010542 7805 switching drop in replacement. It gets me a 5V output with 90% efficiency, over-current and over-temperature protection. Not cheap, but when you are talking about stuff that could start a fire…
Posted in Circuit snippets

11 thoughts on “MC34063: A tough lesson

  1. The other problem is tantalum capacitors. They are outright banned in some industries due to them being in effect small incenduries far more often than they should. I have used 34063’s for decades without an issue if I want through hole.

    1. Provided that you don’t ever end up with a short circuit, I can imagine that you could use 34063’s indefinitely. I was surprised to see that Tantalum go short circuit, but was glad it did. With that particular design there was an awful lot of stuff attached to that 5V rail – plenty of opportunities for faults.

  2. So if we replace the Tantalum with the Electrolytic capacitor, does the this circuit design work without the short circuits?

    I am going to use this IC but wondering whether it is suit for us.
    We use it at the Industry filed, input is 12V~24V output is 5V 500mA.

    Any design tips? Thanks.

  3. What a waste of fine PCB. Been playing with MC34063 for a while (still have dozons of left in the junkbox). This sucker is a weird one. Performance varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Some can withstand up to 50 volts (beyond spec) and some (no name brands) puffs at 20 V. Some even work without the timing capacitor ( basically works with trace capacitance).

    Very unpredictable IC. Not good for serious design

    1. That is what happens when patents expire. Anyone (and everyone) start making them, all of a sudden you have no idea what you are buying.

      When I buy them, they have to come from a reputable source (i.e. Mouser) and be a name brand (e.g. ST).

  4. Hi saw your post with fried 34063 photograph…
    you may want to try the a reported “drop in” replace from On Semi
    NCP3063, NCP3063B, NCV3063 which has thermal shutdown
    see below and link https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/308/NCP3063-D-46986.pdf

    1.5 A, Step-Up/Down/ Inverting Switching Regulators
    The NCP3063 Series is a higher frequency upgrade to the popular MC34063A and MC33063A monolithic DC−DC converters. These devices consist of an internal temperature compensated reference, comparator, a controlled duty cycle oscillator with an active current limit circuit, a driver and a high current output switch. This series was specifically designed to be incorporated in Step−Down, Step−Up and Voltage−Inverting applications with a minimum number of external components

    http://onsemi.com

    Features
    • Operation to 40 V Input
    • Low Standby Current
    • Output Switch Current to 1.5 A
    • Output Voltage Adjustable
    • Frequency Operation of 150 kHz
    • Precision 1.5% Reference
    • New Features: Internal Thermal Shutdown with Hysteresis
    New Features: Cycle−by−Cycle Current Limiting • Pb−Free

    1. Tantalium capacitors in combination with a switched regulator is a bad design for starters. Use LSR electrol. capacitors or all ceramic ones with highest switching freq. if space is an issue . Also take care of the max. current the MC34063 can handle (current trough the coil by the MC is far higher than the asked output current) .
      We use the MC34063 in emegency lighting for years and never have issues with heating or burned capa’s, if the desin is carefully done 🙂

  5. I have been using MC34063 for 20 years, this year I had exactly the same problem where a audio codec failed low ohm and caused the MC34063 to burn out.

    I have fixed the cause of the codec failing.

    I usually use electrolytic for bulk capacitance but need low ESR so was thinking about Tants…. This report has kind of put me off (although I have not had a tant fail like this before unless it was the wrong way round).

  6. I do agree the MC34063 is not really the best, but it’s also widely known that tantalum capacitors have a potentially dangerous failure mode ending in thermal runaway and that external failsafe circuitry such as current limiters and thermal fuses should be used in conjunction with tantalum capacitors. I have used many of these devices are rarely had any major failures. They are still more efficient than most LDO’s. if power consumption requirements are lax and PCB space is not a premium.

    So, it seems as the circuit wasn’t tested properly under a short circuit condition from day one. Thermal protections claimed by manufacturers also many times fail to reliably work and at some point fail catastrophically, more so these days with mosfets, where the circuit impedance can be many times lower than Bipolar.

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