Insulated power supply apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12289043-B2
Application number	US-202218068549-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2022
Priority date	Dec 22, 2021
Publication date	Apr 29, 2025
Grant date	Apr 29, 2025

Abstract

An insulated power supply apparatus includes, a transformer; a switching element connected in series with a primary side winding of the transformer; an active clamp circuit connected between terminals of the primary side winding of the transformer; and a power supply control semiconductor device. The switching element includes a field effect transistor and a current-voltage conversion element is connected between a source terminal of the switching element and a grounding point. The power supply control semiconductor device includes the following, a first external terminal in which voltage according to a drain side of the switching element is input, a second external terminal in which voltage converted by the current-voltage conversion element is input, an on/off control circuit that performs turn-on and turn-off of the switching element, and a ZVS determining circuit that determines whether zero voltage switching control is performed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An insulated power supply apparatus comprising:
a transformer that converts voltage;
a switching element connected in series with a primary side winding of the transformer;
an active clamp circuit connected between terminals of the primary side winding of the transformer; and
a power supply control semiconductor device that controls the switching element and the active clamp circuit,
wherein the switching element includes a field effect transistor and a current-voltage conversion element is connected between a source terminal of the switching element and a grounding point, and
wherein the power supply control semiconductor device includes:
a first external terminal in which a voltage according to a drain side of the switching element or a voltage dividing the voltage according to the drain side of the switching element is input,
a second external terminal in which a voltage converted by the current-voltage conversion element is input,
an on/off control circuit that performs turn-on and turn-off of the switching element based on an input voltage of the first external terminal, and
a ZVS determining circuit that determines whether a zero voltage switching control is performed by determining a drain side voltage of the switching element is a zero voltage based on the input voltage of the second external terminal.

2. The insulated power supply apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the on/off control circuit includes a turn-on timing detecting circuit that detects a turn-on timing of the switching element based on the input voltage of the first external terminal and a turn-off timing detecting circuit that detects a turn-off timing of the switching element by comparing the input voltage of the second external terminal with a predetermined reference voltage, and
wherein the ZVS determining circuit determines that the zero voltage switching control is not performed in a situation that there is an output of the turn-off timing detecting circuit within a predetermined amount of time right after the timing of turn-on is detected by the turn-on timing detecting circuit, and determines that the zero voltage switching control is performed in a situation that there is no output of the turn-off timing detecting circuit within the predetermined amount of time.

3. The insulated power supply apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a signal generating circuit that generates a control signal that controls the active clamp circuit,
wherein the signal generating circuit extends an on time of a transistor included in the active clamp circuit with a predetermined amount in a situation that the ZVS determining circuit determines that the zero voltage switching control is not performed.

4. The insulated power supply apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a signal generating circuit that generates a control signal that controls the active clamp circuit, and
wherein the signal generating circuit stepwise extends an on time of a transistor included in the active clamp circuit in a situation that the ZVS determining circuit continuously determines that the zero voltage switching control is not performed in a plurality of continuous cycles.

5. The insulated power supply apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the signal generating circuit maintains an on time of the transistor included in the active clamp circuit to be a same of the on time as the previous cycle in a situation that the ZVS determining circuit determines that the zero voltage switching control is performed.

6. The insulated power supply apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the on/off control circuit includes:
a driving signal generating circuit that generates a gate driving signal of the switching element based on an output of the turn-on timing detecting circuit and an output of the turn-off timing detecting circuit,
a mask circuit that cuts transmitting of the output of the turn-off timing detecting circuit to the driving signal generating circuit for a predetermined amount of time right after the turn-on timing detecting circuit detects the turn-on timing, and
a timer circuit that counts the predetermined amount of time,
wherein the timer circuit starts a time counting operation in response to the turn-on timing detecting circuit detecting the turn-on timing, stops the time counting operation at a point that a preset predetermined amount of time is counted, and outputs a signal showing that the time is being counted while the time is being counted, and
wherein the mask circuit cuts the output of the turn-off timing detecting circuit while the timer circuit outputs the signal showing that the time is being counted.

Assignees

• Takehana Hiroaki
• Hyugaji Takumi
• Mitsumi Electric Co Ltd

Inventors

• Takehana Hiroaki
• Hyugaji Takumi

Classifications

• H02M1/083

  for the ignition at the zero crossing of the voltage or the current · CPC title

• Y02B70/10

  Technologies improving the efficiency by using switched-mode power supplies [SMPS], i.e. efficient power electronics conversion e.g. power factor correction or reduction of losses in power supplies or efficient standby modes · CPC title

• H02M1/40

  Means for preventing magnetic saturation · CPC title

• H02M1/0058 Primary

  by employing soft switching techniques, i.e. commutation of transistors when applied voltage is zero or when current flow is zero (using an auxiliary actively switched resonant commutation circuit connected to an intermediate DC voltage or between two push-pull branches of an inverter bridge H02M7/4811; in resonant inverters H02M7/4815; in inverters operating from a resonant DC source H02M7/4826) · CPC title

• H02M1/342

  Active non-dissipative snubbers · CPC title