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US 9,716,437 B2Granted
Power converter for a switching power supply and manner of operation thereof
AssigneeChampion Microelectronic Corp.
InventorJeffrey Hwang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A switching power supply comprises a power converter that includes a transformer, a low side switch and a high side switch. The low side switch draws current from a supply voltage through a primary winding of the transformer. The high side switch discharges current from the primary winding of the transformer to a snubber capacitor. The controller synchronously controls the opening and closing of the low side switch and the high side switch. The power converter can be included in a flyback converter. The power converter can generate a regulated output voltage.
Claims34
A switching power supply comprising:
- a flyback power converter configured to perform DC-to-DC power conversion, the flyback power converter having a transformer, a low side switch for drawing current from a supply voltage through a primary winding of the transformer, and a high side switch for discharging current from the primary winding of the transformer to a capacitor;
- and
- a controller configured to synchronously control the opening and closing of the low side switch and the high side switch so as to form a regulated output voltage in a feedback loop, the output voltage being formed from a current induced in a secondary winding of the transformer wherein, during each switching cycle, the high side switch is held open while the low side switch is closed and then opened and the low side switch is held open while the high side switch is closed and then opened, and wherein a first voltage is generated at a node between the low side switch and the high side switch during operation, and wherein the high side switch is closed when the supply voltage is greater than the first voltage and the high side switch is opened when the first voltage supply voltage falls to a level of the supply voltage.
A switching power supply comprising:
- a flyback power converter configured to perform DC-to-DC power conversion, the flyback power converter having a transformer, a low side switch for drawing current from a supply voltage through a primary winding of the transformer, and a high side switch for discharging current from the primary winding of the transformer to a capacitor;
- and
- a controller configured to synchronously control the opening and closing of the low side switch and the high side switch so as to form the regulated output voltage in a feedback loop, the output voltage being formed from a current induced in a secondary winding of the transformer, wherein the controller is configured to selectively operate in:
- a frequency control mode in which frequency of switching is controlled in a feedback loop for regulating the output voltage;
- and a current control mode in which peak current in the primary winding of the transformer for each switch cycle is controlled in a feedback loop for regulating the output voltage.
2 more elements
A switching power supply comprising:
- a flyback power converter configured to perform DC-to-DC power conversion, the flyback power converter having a transformer, a low side switch for drawing current from a supply voltage through a primary winding of the transformer, and a high side switch for discharging current from the primary winding of the transformer to a capacitor;
- and
- a controller configured to synchronously control the opening and closing of the low side switch and the high side switch so as to form the regulated output voltage in a feedback loop, the output voltage being formed from a current induced in a secondary winding of the transformer wherein, during each switching cycle, the high side switch is held open while the low side switch is closed and then opened and the low side switch is held open while the high side switch is closed and then opened, and wherein a controller integrated circuit package comprises the controller and the controller integrated circuit package comprises a first monolithic integrated circuit chip that comprises a low side driver controller configured to control the low side switch and a second monolithic integrated circuit chip that comprises a high side driver controller configured to control the high side switch and further wherein the low side driver controller and the high side driver controller have different ground reference voltages and the low side driver controller communicates with the high side driver controller via a differential signal.
A switching power supply comprising:
- a flyback power converter configured to perform DC-to-DC power conversion, the flyback power converter having a transformer, a low side switch for drawing current from a supply voltage through a primary winding of the transformer, and a high side switch for discharging current from the primary winding of the transformer to a capacitor;
- and
- a controller configured to synchronously control the opening and closing of the low side switch and the high side switch so as to form the regulated output voltage in a feedback loop, the output voltage being formed from a current induced in a secondary winding of the transformer wherein, during each switching cycle, the high side switch is held open while the low side switch is closed and then opened and the low side switch is held open while the high side switch is closed and then opened, and wherein a controller integrated circuit package comprises the controller and the controller integrated circuit package comprises a first monolithic integrated circuit chip that comprises a low side driver controller configured to control the low side switch and a second monolithic integrated circuit chip that comprises a high side driver controller configured to control the high side switch and further wherein the low side driver controller and the high side driver controller have different ground reference voltages and the low side driver controller receives a signal that is representative of a voltage at a node between the high side switch and the low side switch in order to close the low side switch under zero volt switching conditions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.