Implementing the novel ClassEgg® architecture, Eggtronic’s EPIC201ACCD AC-DC power controller reaches peak efficiency of higher than 95%. Power is not all that it saves – component count is also smaller than for traditional boost PFC + LLC systems.
When powering a server or supplying a big power consumer in the home such as a TV or appliance, every extra percentage point of extra efficiency that you can squeeze out has huge value – not only saving energy cost for the consumer, but also reducing heat inside the device and helping ease the thermal stress on components.
This means that efficiency is a crucial parameter promoted by makers of high-power AC-DC power controllers such as STMicroelectronics and Infineon, and by companies that make integrated power converters such as Power Integrations.
Now there’s an interestingly different approach to the problem of achieving efficiency in the boost PFC + LLC resonant converter topology: the Eggtronic ClassEgg® architecture. Unlike power controllers from companies such as ST or Infineon, which require the designer to implement the architecture themselves to fit their application, the ClassEgg architecture is pre-configured and optimised by Eggtronic for a boost PFC and isolated dual-output LLC topology operating at power levels of up to 500W.
With everything working together perfectly – including the EPIC201ACCD primary-side controller and a proprietary ClassEgg synchronous rectifier on the secondary side – the Eggtronic circuit can achieve total peak efficiency higher than 95%, as well as a reduced bill-of-materials (BoM) compared to traditional boost PFC + LLC converters. Efficiency is flat across the load range from light to full load.
The EPIC201ACCD integrates a boost PFC and a dual-output, isolated LLC resonant regulator in a single IC. Efficiency of the boost PFC stage is higher than 98%, and 97% for the LLC stage.
The boost PFC stage implements an enhanced interleaved converter with a proprietary magnetic component based on two weakly coupled windings on the same core.
The LLC converter is based on a matrix-fashion transformer and a synchronous rectifier that hybridates the voltage doubler and the full bridge rectifiers, to achieve excellent regulation of both the outputs.
The ClassEgg architecture is best suited to use in power supplies for home appliances, TV panels, servers, computers, and a wide range of applications in the consumer and industrial domains.
EPIC201ACCD key features:
- Optimized low-power mode for enhancing no-load performance and standby power consumption
- Digital PFC without auxiliary network compensation
- Programmable dual outputs
- Excellent light-load efficiency
- Frequency jittering to reduce EMI profile
- Customizable brown-in/brown-out protection
- Customizable overpower protection
- 40-pin 6mm x 6mm QFN package