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Analysis and Design of Self-Oscillating Flyback Converter: Brian T. Irving and Milan M. Jovanović
Analysis and Design of Self-Oscillating Flyback Converter: Brian T. Irving and Milan M. Jovanović
Abstract –The self-oscillating flyback converter is a popular circuit for applications which require a tight output regulation, such as
cost-sensitive applications due to its simplicity and low component count. It applications with a wide range of input voltage and load
is widely employed in mobile phone chargers and as the stand-by power
source in off-line power supplies for data-processing equipment. However, current, an error amplifier is often implemented.
the optimization of this circuit is almost exclusively performed by a cut- The circuit diagram of an isolated self-oscillating flyback
and-try approach since its operation is generally not well understood. This converter with output voltage control is shown in Fig. 1.
paper presents a detailed steady-state analysis of the self-oscillating flyback Transformer T1 consists of 2 secondary windings: output
converter along with its small-signal model. Design guidelines of the
control circuit and loop compensation are presented and verified on an off- winding NS1 and positive-feedback winding NS2. Main output
line, stand-by, 5-V/ 2-A power supply. VO1 is isolated, and tightly regulated by error amplifier E/A,
whereas auxiliary output VO2 is not isolated, and is loosely
I. INTRODUCTION regulated by main output VO1 through transformer T1. Output
voltage VO1 is sensed through a resistor divider consisting of
The self-oscillating flyback converter, often referred to as resistors Rd1 and Rd2, and compared at the input of a
the ringing choke converter (RCC), is a robust, low- transconductance type amplifier (TL431) to a stable voltage
component-count circuit that has been widely used in low- reference located within the TL431 device. Components
power off-line applications. Since the control of the circuit CEA1, CEA2, and REA1 are used as compensation to stabilize the
can be implemented with very few discrete components voltage control loop. The difference between the sensed
without loss of performance, the overall cost of the circuit is output voltage and the voltage reference is amplified by
generally lower than the conventional PWM flyback TL431 and reflected to the primary side through optocoupler
converter that employs a commercially available integrated IC1 as error current ie, which in turn develops error voltage Ve
control . across (the sum of) resistors RS and RF. Error voltage Ve is
Generally, the operation of the circuit is not well summed with a voltage proportional to switch current iS1 and
understood. This is primarily due to the fact that existing compared at the PWM modulator, which is implemented with
literature deals with the circuit in a very superficial manner bipolar junction transistor (BJT) Q1, to a fixed voltage
[1]-[2]. Therefore, the design of this converter usually threshold, which, in this case, is cut-off voltage Vγ of
follows a cut- and-try approach, which is a time consuming transistor Q1. Zero-current detect components CZCD and RZCD,
process and which usually doesn’t lead to an optimized along with winding NS2, sense, with some delay, the
design. continuous/discontinuous conduction mode (CCM/DCM)
The purpose of this paper is to present a complete design- boundary of transformer T1, and delivers charge to main
oriented steady-state analysis and small-signal model of the switch S1 to initiate switch turn-on. Finally, circuit start-up is
self-oscillating flyback converter that can be used in the T1 D1 LF
optimization of this circuit. In addition, a step-by-step design i01
NP NS1 i 1
procedure of the control circuit is presented and verified on CO1 CF RL1 Rd1
Fig. 2 (a) Simplified circuit diagram of self-oscillating flyback converter which contains voltage and current designators. (b) – (l) Topological stages of
self-oscillating flyback converter.
as current iZCD continues to flow through capacitor CISS, as turned on. After switch S1 is fully turned on at t = t7, drain-
shown in Fig. 2(g). This stage ends at t = t7 when gate-source source current iS1 starts increasing linearly with slope
voltage VGS reaches the level where switch S1 begins diS1 dt = VIN L M . As a result, voltage drop VS = iS1RS across
operating in the ohmic region, i.e., when switch S1 is fully sensing resistor RS also increases with the same slope. This
Fig. 2(j). As voltage VGS decreases, switch S1 is turning off. RCO1 RCF
VO
Rd2
At t = t10, voltage VGS decreases to threshold voltage VTH of
switch S1 so that S1 is turned off. After switch S1 is turned off S1 Gvevo (s) G1
at t = t10, output capacitance COSS of switch S1 begins to VIN
charge so that voltage VDS begins to increase. This ^
VB RB
topological stage shown in Fig. 2(k) ends when voltage RS G3
^
iEA
VDS + VS ≈ VDS reaches VIN + NVO . At the same time, secondary RF CEA2
GEA(s)
rectifiers D1 and D2 start conducting and transistor Q1 turns Q1
CEA1
REA1
off, which completes a switching cycle. ^
ie ^
^
V =^
EA VKA
VQbe TL431
A. Small-Signal Model ^
i e = β iEA ^
^
Ve = (RS + RF )^i e
To achieve tight output voltage regulation and good
G2
dynamic performance while ensuring system stability,
compensation components CEA1, CEA2, and REA1 need to be Fig. 4 Simplified circuit diagram of self-oscillating flyback converter for
determined. However, the design optimization of the error small-signal modeling and analysis
(s s z1 + 1)(s s z2 + 1) VIN 1
G VeVo (s) M dc
(s s p1 )(
+ 1 s 2 ω2O + s QωO + 1 ) Mdc −
2R S I O
sz1
CO1R Co1
1 Kr 1 IO N
− ωO −
VIN (1 + N VO VIN )
sz2 sp1 Kr
C F R CF C O1 + C F L F (1 C O1 + 1 C F )
C F + C O1 1 R d2
Q LF Kd
C FCO1 R Co1 + R CF + R lf + K r (R Co1R CF − L F (C O1 + C F )) R d1 + R d 2
G1 1 RB G2 β G3 R F + RS *
s p1 (1+G1G2G3Mdc)sp1
A s s zcomp1 + 1 1 1 C EA1 + 1 C EA 2
GEA(s) szcomp1 spcomp2
s s s pcomp 2 + 1 R EA1C EA1 R EA1
R d1 + R d 2
R d1R d 2 (C EA1 + C EA 2 )
A
VKA = VO − Vd − I K R B . (4) The role of capacitor CZCD is to block dc current during start-
Since at minimum load, current IK is maximum, as seen from up, allowing charge to be delivered from the input voltage
Fig. 5, where IK = ie/β, and, therefore, voltage VKA is at a through start-up resistor RST until switch S1 turns on for the
minimum. Resistor RB can be expressed as first time. Otherwise, capacitor CZCD merely delays the full
VO − Vd − VKA
min turn-on of switch S1 by increasing the length of time spent by
RB < max
. (5) switch S1 in the constant-current region, which is undesirable
IK
from a power conversion efficiency point of view. Therefore,
The selection of sense resistor RS is limited by its maximum it is recommended that capacitor CZCD be set ten times greater
power dissipation, which, if set to 0.1% of circuit’s maximum than input capacitance CISS. Since capacitors CZCD and CISS
input power PINmax , is form a voltage divider at the gate of switch S1, steps should
RS =
0.001 ⋅ PIN
max
. (6) be taken to clamp the gate voltage with zener diode ZD1 to
i pk D max 3
2
avoid exceeding the terminal voltage rating. The role of
S1
resistor RZCD is to limit power PZD1 dissipated by zener diode
The selection of resistor RF is limited at minimum load by ZD1,
maximum error current i emax , sense resistor RS, and cut-off R ZCD =
max
VIN (NS2 N P ) − VZD1 V . (11)
ZD1
voltage Vγ, PZD1
10
0
Gain [dB]
10
20
30
40
50
3 4 5
10 100 1 .10 1 .10 1 .10
frequency [Hz]
Calculated Gain
Measured Gain
150
100
phase [deg]
50
50
100
3 4 5
10 100 1 .10 1 .10 1 .10
frequency [Hz]
Calculated Phase
Measured Phase