TPS61201 - 3.3v Booster

_{Written 8-22-19}

While taking apart an Amazon Dash button to see what chips I could salvage and learn about, I came across the chip that generated the 3.3v to power everything. Using info from this website, I was able to find that it was a TPS61201. This was quite the fascinating chip since I was always interested in boost circuits and how to implement them into my own projects.

Checking out the datasheet, it looks like the TPS61201 and it’s family of chips is quite a versatile bunch. The TPS61201 specifically can supply a couple 100 milliamps, has excellent efficiency, both boost and down conversion modes, undervoltage protection and more all in one tiny package. The extra parts necessary to power it are also all quite simple and easy to route on a PCB. Even more it’s made by TI which has a very generous sample program. All in all, it had a very warm welcome into my parts bin.

Using my PCB laminator, I was able to turn around a test PCB rather quickly. A bit of soldering later and I was off.

I also explored a bunch of boards from eBay that could generate 3.3v from a lower or higher voltage, but none could quite compare to the TPS61201. Of course, there are definitely better options for different use cases, but this is a great general purpose chip for my projects.