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US 6,775,159 B2Granted
Switching power converter circuits providing main and auxiliary output voltages
AssigneeRockwell Scientific Company
InventorsKenneth F. Webb, Jian Sun
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A converter circuit includes a magnetic core, a primary winding, a secondary winding, a main rectification circuit, and an auxiliary rectification circuit. The primary winding and the secondary winding are wound around the magnetic core. The main rectification circuit and the auxiliary rectification circuit are both connected to the secondary winding and produce output voltages having different magnitudes. The auxiliary voltage powers the control and drive circuits for both the primary switches and the synchronous rectifiers used for the main rectification circuit.
Claims22
A converter circuit comprising:
- a transformer core;
- a primary winding, the primary winding being wound around the transformer core;
- a secondary winding, the secondary winding being wound around the transformer core;
- a main rectification circuit, including a first output capacitor and a rectifier that controls current flow through the first output capacitor;
- an auxiliary rectification circuit;
- wherein the main rectification circuit and the auxiliary rectification circuit are both connected to the secondary winding and produce output voltages having different magnitudes;
- a drive circuit, the drive circuit being coupled to receive a supply voltage;
- a drive control circuit, the drive control circuit being coupled to the drive circuit and controlling the drive circuit to apply a pulse width modulated voltage to the primary winding;
- wherein the output voltage produced by the auxiliary rectification circuit is provided to the drive control circuit;
- and
- wherein the drive control circuit synchronizes operation of the rectifier to the pulse width modulated voltage by using the output voltage produced by the auxiliary rectification circuit to produce a control signal for the rectifier, a magnitude of the voltage of the control signal being determined at least in part by the magnitude of the output voltage of the auxiliary rectification circuit.
8 more elements
A method comprising the steps of:
- proving a primary current to a primary winding of a dc/dc converter, the primary winding being wound around a transformer core;
- producing a secondary current in a secondary winding in response to the primary current, the secondary winding being wound around the transformer core and being magnetically coupled to the primary winding;
- splitting the secondary current between first and second circuit branches to produce first and second components of the secondary current, the first circuit branch comprising a first output capacitor and the second current branch comprising a second output capacitor;
- charging the first output capacitor to a first output voltage with the first component of the secondary current;
- charging the second output capacitor to a second output voltage with the second component of the secondary current, the second output voltage being different than the first output voltage;
- controlling a flow of the first component of the secondary current with a rectifier;
- controlling operation of the rectifier with a drive control circuit, the drive control circuit being connected to the second capacitor, the drive control circuit using the second output voltage to produce a control signal for the rectifier, a magnitude of the voltage of the control signal being determined at least in part by the magnitude of the second output voltage;
- wherein the primary current is provided to the primary winding using a drive circuit that applies a pulse width modulated voltage to the primary winding;
- and
- wherein the method further comprises controlling the drive circuit with a drive control circuit, the drive control circuit controlling the drive circuit and the rectifier so that operation of the rectifier is synchronized to the operation of the drive circuit.
7 more elements
A dc/dc converter circuit comprising:
- a transformer core;
- a primary winding, the primary winding being wound around the transformer core;
- a secondary winding, the secondary winding being wound around the transformer core;
- a main rectification circuit, the main rectification circuit being connected to the secondary winding, the main rectification circuit further comprising a first output capacitor and a rectifier that controls current flow through the first output capacitor, and an output voltage of the main rectification circuit being produced across the first output capacitor;
- an auxiliary rectification circuit, the auxiliary rectification circuit being connected to the secondary winding, the auxiliary rectification circuit further comprising a second output capacitor, and an output voltage of the auxiliary rectification circuit being produced across the second output capacitor, the output voltage of the auxiliary rectification circuit having a magnitude which is different than a magnitude of the output voltage of the main rectification circuit;
- a drive circuit, the drive circuit being coupled to receive a supply voltage;
- and
- a drive control circuit, the drive control circuit being coupled to the drive circuit and controlling the drive circuit to apply a pulse width modulated dc voltage to the primary winding, the drive control circuit controlling the rectifier to synchronize operation of the rectifier to the pulse width modulated voltage, the drive control circuit being connected to receive the output voltage produced by the auxiliary rectification circuit, the drive control circuit being powered by the output voltage produced by the auxiliary rectification circuit to produce a control signal for the drive circuit, the control signal producing a pulse with duration determined at least in part by the magnitude of the output voltage of the main rectification circuit.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.