AN1045

Application Note 1045
Design Guidelines for Off-line AC-DC Power Supply Using BCD
PWM Controller AP3103
Prepared by Zhaokun Wang
System Engineering Dept.
1. Introduction
Temperature Protection (OTP), Over Load Protection
(OLP). It is specially designed for off-line AC-DC
power supply, such as, LCD monitor, netbook adapter
and battery charger applications. It can offer
designers a cost effective solution while keeping
versatile protection features.
The AP3103 is a low start-up current, current-mode
PWM controller with green-mode power-saving
operation. The PWM switching frequency at normal
operation is externally programmable and is trimmed
to a tight range. The dithering of frequency will
improve EMI feature. When the load decreases, the
frequency will reduce and when at a very low load, the
IC will enter the “burst mode” to minimize switching
loss. About 20kHz frequency switching is to avoid the
audible noise as well as reducing the standby loss.
This paper presents a guideline for off-line AC-DC
flyback converters using AP3103 and provides an
effective way on how to design a SMPS. For a better
understanding of AP3103 and its application, this
paper also include the introduction to some internal
functions, such as saw limiter, and some details need
to notice when designing a SMPS using AP3103. The
ways on how to improve the system efficiency, and
eliminate the audio noise are also recommended in
the paper.
F1
AP3103
NTC
The AP3103 integrates a lot of functions such as the
Lead Edge Blanking (LEB) of the current sensing,
internal slope compensation and several protection
features that include cycle-by-cycle current limit,
VCC Over Voltage Protection (VOVP), Over
Temperature Protection (OTP),
Figure 1. System Schematic Circuit with AP3103
Feb. 2010
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BCD Semiconductor Manufacturing Limited
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Application Note 1045
wo
work under DCM boundary at the highest input
voltage for full load condition, and for better hold-up
time after shutting off, the maximum duty cycle
should be lower than the maximum duty cycle of
AP3103.
2. Design Procedures
2.1 Defining System Specifications
Before deigning a SMPS, engineers must confirm the
system specifications, which are usually proposed by
customer or some sector criterions such as, energy
star specification for External Power Supply (EPS).
Some main specification for a SMPS are listed as
below:
Switching frequency setting may puzzle the system
designers because, high switching frequency can
minimize the system size, but, in return, it cause more
loss, such as switching loss, core loss, EMI filter loss,
etc. So compromise must be achieved among
component size, power level, and acceptable loss.
-Input Commercial Voltage, VAC.
-Rated Output Power, PO.
-Rated Output Voltage, VO.
-System Efficiency, η.
-Output Voltage Ripple, ∆V.
2.4 Calculating Primary-side Inductance (LM)
For CCM, there are maximum current and minimum
current, the relation of which needs to be defined as
below before designing, as the relation is uncertain at
the beginning.
2.2 Selecting DC Bulk Capacitor
The DC bulk capacitor C1 in Figure 1 is used to
provide a smooth DC voltage by filtering lowfrequency AC ripple voltage. The DC Bulk capacitor,
together with the flyback transformer forms a LC
filter to filter out the DM noise, and can be expressed
as below:
C BULK ≥
f AC
I P _ MAX = k × I P _ MIN
………………………..(2)
Where IP_MIN is zero for DCM.
PO
….. (1)
2
× (VIN _ MAX − VIN2 _ MIN ) × η
IP_MAX
IP_AV
Where PO, fAC, VIN_MAX, VIN_MIN is the rated output
power, input commercial voltage, maximum voltage
on bulk capacitor, and minimum voltage on bulk
capacitor respectively. A simple way is to set CBULK at
2 to 3µF per watt under full AC voltage input and at 1
to 2µF per watt under single AC voltage input.
IP_MIN
Figure. 2 Primary-side Current
2.3 Selecting Maximum Switching Duty Cycle
(DMAX) and Switching Frequency (fS)
There are two basic operation modes in flyback
converter: Continuous Current Mode (CCM) and
Discontinuous Current Mode (DCM). Usually, the
CCM and DCM operation modes alternate following
the changing of input AC voltage. These two modes
have their own advantages and disadvantages. DCM
provides a better switching condition for rectifier
diode on the secondary side, since the diode operates
under zero-current switching. But DCM may cause
high RMS current, which increases the conduction
loss of the switching and the current stress on the
output capacitor. So CCM is recommended under low
input voltage or high output current, while DCM is
recommended under high voltage or small output
current.
So the primary-side inductance can be expressed as:
2
2
k 2 − 1 VDC _ MIN × DMAX × η
LM =
×
2
8
PO × f S
Where VDC_MIN is the minimum input DC voltage.
Once LM is determined, the actual value of
primary-side current can be expressed as below:
I P _ RMS _ MAX
= DMAX × ( I P2 _ MAX − ∆I × I P _ MAX + ∆I 2 / 3)
…….........................................................................(4)
Usually, it is recommended to design the system to
Feb. 2010
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Once the core is selected, the primary winding can be
expressed as:
Where,
I P _ MAX =
V DC _ MIN × DMAX
k
×
………...(5)
k −1
LM × f S
NP =
LM × I P _ MAX
BMAX × AE
………………………….(7)
∆I = I P _ MAX − I P _ MIN ……………………….(6)
Where BMAX is the maximum flux density. For ferrite
core, BMAX is better to be lower than 0.3T. So the
secondary winding and auxiliary winding can be
expressed as below respectively:
2.5 Selecting Proper Core and Calculating
Winding
Transformer is one of the most important elements in
flyback converter. A common method to select the
core is to consider the window area (AQ) and section
area (AE) of the transformer. There are also some
practical experience for selecting the core. Some
recommended core selection for single output under
65kHz switching frequency is shown in Table 1. For
multiple outputs, the size should be properly larger.
Output
Power
(W)
0 to 10
Margin1Wound
Construction
EEL16
NA =
N S × VCC
……………………………....(9)
VO
…………..(8)
EF16
EF20
EE19/EI19
EEL19
2.6 Selecting the Power MOSFET
When the switch is off, input DC voltage, together
with the output voltage reflected to the primary are
imposed on the MOSFET. Ignoring the voltage spike
caused by leakage inductance, the voltage on the
MOSFET can be expressed as:
EE19/EI19
10 to 20
N P × (VO + VF ) × (1 − D)
VDC _ MIN × D
Where VF is forward voltage of diode in secondary
side and VCC is the operating voltage of AP3103.
Ferrite Cores
Triple Insulation
Wire Construction
EE16/EI16
NS =
EF20
EEL19
EFD20
EF25
VMOS = VDC _ IN + N T × (VO + VF ) ………...(10)
EE22/EI22
20 to 30
30 to 50
50 to 70
70 to 100
EI25
EF30
EF25
EI30
EI28
EER28
EI28
EI30
EF30
EER28
EI30
EERL28
EER28
EER35
EER28L
EER28L
EI35
EER35
EER35
ETD39
ETD34
EER35
EI35
ETD39
EER35
EER40
E21
E21
Where NT=NP/NS. Usually, the maximum voltage
imposed on the MOSFET is 90% of its rating voltage.
2.7 Selecting the Secondary-side Rectifier Diode
Schottky rectifiers have the merits of low
forward-voltage drop and no reverse effect. These
features can reduce the loss and improve the overall
efficiency, so they are ideal for switching converter
application. The main limitation of schottky include
the working peak-reverse-voltage rating, the peakrepetitive forward current, and the average forwardcurrent rating of the device. Normally, the forwardvoltage drop of diode is proportional to the voltage
rating and reverse proportional to average forward
current rating. And the maximum junction
temperature is also the limitation for system design.
In a flyback topology, the maximum working peakreverse-voltage can be expressed as below:
Table 1. Ferrite Core Selection Table
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Application Note 1045
VS _ PEAK = VO +
VIN _ PEAK
Where VDC_IN is input DC voltage, VUVLO is VCC
UVLO threshold and IST is the start-up current.
……………………(11)
NT
C3 and C4 should be carefully selected. The turn-on
time will be long if C3 is too large, and the system
will fail to start if it is too small. The function of C4
is to provide energy for AP3103, if too small, the IC
will not have enough energy to sustain the voltage
level of VCC over UVLO (off), which may compel
the IC to re-start repeatedly all the time.
For the forward current rating, efficiency and
temperature rising should be considered.
2.8 Selecting the Output Capacitor
The frequency of output ripple is the same to
switching frequency. The output capacitor is used to
provide enough energy to the load as well as filtering
high frequency ripple voltage that have impacts on
the ESR of capacitor, output current value, etc. Take
the CCM flyback as an example, provided the
primary-side inductance is big enough, the equation
can be expressed as:
3. Internal Functions of AP3103
3.1 Saw Limiter
Saw limiter is a compensation method to minimize
the difference of OLP power between high input
voltage and low input voltage. The power of OLP at
high input voltage will be higher than at low input
voltage if the OCP voltage is constant. Before the
OLP functions, the system is protected by OCP cycle
by cycle, and system damage may occur. There are
two reasons for this, first, the rising slope of
primary-side current is different with the changing of
input voltage; Second, the comparator for current
limit has delay time from input to output. The current
rising rate at high input voltage is higher than that at
low input voltage, so the maximum current (IP_MAX1)
at high input voltage is higher than the maximum
current (IP_MAX2) at low input voltage. If the system
works at DCM under OLP, the power under OLP at
low input voltage (PL) and at high input voltage (PH)
can be expressed respectively as below:
∆VO = ∆VO _ ESR + ∆VC
= I O × ESR +
∆VC =
………………..(12)
1
× ∫ iCAP dt
C O tOFF
I O _ MAX × DMAX
CF × f S
…………………… (13)
From equations above, we can see low ESR type
capacitor is required for output capacitor to sustain
large RMS ripple current. Moreover, a low-pass LC
filter can be added to the converter output to
eliminate the requirement of high-performance
capacitor as well as benefiting the EMC.
2.9 Selecting the Sampling Resistor and Start-up
Resistor and VCC Capacitor
CCM needs a sampling resistor in primary side, for
AP3103, the value of sampling resistor may have
impacts on OLP, standby power, burst mode point,
etc. If too large, it may cause high OLP resulting in
system damage, and high burst-mode point resulting
in low efficiency under light load, and also high
standby power. So the selecting of the sampling
resistor should be a trade-off among them.
Feb. 2010
VDC _ IN − VUVLO
I ST
1
LM I P2 _ MAX 1 f S ………………………..(15)
2
PH =
1
LM I P2 _ MAX 2 f S ……………………….(16)
2
PH is higher than PL under OLP because of the delay
time of comparator. The reason why CCM need the
compensation is the same to that of DCM.
Start-up resistor RST (R4, R5 in Figure 1) and VCC
capacitor (C3, C4 in Figure 1) are key parameters for
starting up, the maximum RST is determined by
formula below:
RST _ MAX =
PL =
So, saw limiter used in AP3103 can minimize the
difference of OLP power to protect the system
(Figure 4). The saw limiter begins to function when
the switching turn-on time is lower than about 8µs, so
the effect of OLP is relative to the winding ratio of
the transformer. For example, the input AC voltage of
a SMPS is from 90V to 265V, if the winding ratio is
too big, the turn-on time will not reach 8 µs until the
AC
………………..(14)
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Application Note 1045
than the chip without frequency fold-back at light
load according to the test result.
AC voltage reaches 150V. That means there will be
no compensation available below 150V, resulting in a
wider-changing range of OLP power from 90V to
265V. So the winding ratio should be carefully
considered when a better OLP performance is
required.
Load
(A)
Chip without
AP3103
Frequency
(kHz)
Frequency Fold-back
Efficiency
(%)
Frequency
Efficiency
(kHz)
(%)
3
65.8
87.66
65.1
87.69
2.25
62.8
87.01
65.2
86.68
1.5
57.5
86.48
64.9
85.51
0.75
32.8
83.48
65.2
80.51
Table 2. Efficiency Comparison under 265V
4. Audible Noise Consideration
Figure 3. Primary-side Current of DCM under OLP
VOCP
IP_MAX2
Audible noise is a common issue in SMPS
application, usually, it mainly comes from the
transformer and snubber capacitor. For the noise
caused by transformer, the audible noise is due to
unstable loop and burst mode frequency (Figure 5).
For unstable loop, there must be audible sound
frequency (normally from 2kHz to 20kHz) contained
in the loop, the solution for this is to adjust the
parameters of the loop to eliminate the sound. For
burst mode frequency, which is unavoidable, one way
is to use good adhesive to fix each part of the
transformer, another way is to minimize the variety of
flux density that could be done by reducing the
maximum primary-side current under burst mode or
minimize the primary-side inductance properly; The
noise caused by snubber capacitor is due to the
electrostrictive and piezoelectric effect in some
ceramic capacitor under alternative electric field
intensity. And the solution is to use film or other
polypropylene capacitor.
0.85V
IP_MAX1
Gate
Gate
Figure 4. Saw Limiter
3.2 Frequency Fold-back
As we know, the switching loss is significant at light
load, and is proportional to the switching frequency.
The AP3103 has frequency fold-back function to
reduce the switching frequency with the load
decreasing to improve the efficiency at light load, and
it is also helpful for improving the average efficiency.
The minimum frequency should be more than 20kHz
to avoid the interference from audio frequency.
Figure 5. Burst Mode Frequency
Table 2 shows the efficiency test result on a 36W
SMPS whose full load is 3A, input AC voltage ranges
from 90V to 265V. And the test is done at the input
voltage of 265V. The efficiency of AP3103 is higher
than
Feb. 2010
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