The ISL8018 is Renesas' latest 5V switching regulator; it supports a continuous load of up to 8A. The device accepts an input voltage of 2.7V to 5.5V and can provide an output voltage of 0.6V to VIN, thanks to the ability to run in 100% duty cycle mode. It has outstanding efficiency of up to 97% and can maintain high efficiency even at low loads thanks to the pulse frequency mode (PFM) for light load operation. In addition to more common features like synchronization to external clock and power-good/enable, the ISL8018 integrates some differentiating features that provide significant value added. First, it provides bidirectional SYNC to eliminate the need for a system clock to synchronize multiple ICs to the same frequency, in order to reduce or eliminate beat frequency. Furthermore, it has programmable phase-shift and a programmable current limit; this provides the customer with the benefit of over current protection (OCP) even while operating at lighter loads compared to the rated 8A capability of the IC, which is key to proliferating the IC for various POL in a particular system and/or various different systems with varying load requirements. The ISL8018 also has a negative current limit to improve reliability. Additionally, this device provides output voltage margining, which integrates the ability to margin the output voltage by ±10% to help the customer check for overall system robustness. The adjustable switching frequency from 500kHz to 4MHz allows a trade-off between high efficiency and extremely small filter size. Finally, adjustable soft-start and start-up in pre-biased load provides the customer/application with complete control for a monotonic start-up.