LLC switcher chipset simplifies power converter design

Power Integrations has launched an energy-saving HiperLCS-2 LLC switcher chipset that is designed to simplify the design of LLC resonant power converters. The surface-mount chipset delivers 250 with over 98% efficiency without a heat sink and no-load consumption of less than 50 mW.

The new dual-chip solution features an isolation device with a high-bandwidth LLC controller, synchronous rectification driver, and FluxLink isolated control link, together with a separate half-bridge with integrated 600-V FREDFETs with lossless current sensing and high- and low-side drivers. Both devices are housed in low-profile InSOP-24 packages. The FluxLink technology for digital feedback control also is said to provide a much faster transient response and improved long-term reliability compared to optocouplers.

HiperLCS-2 LLC switcher chipset. Click for a larger image. (Source: Power Integrations)

This high integration architecture eliminates heat sinks and optocouplers, and reduces component count by up to 40 percent compared to discrete designs, while yielding 98% efficiency, said Power Integrations. The devices enable designers to create compact adapters and open-frame power supplies for TVs, monitors with USB PD ports, all-in-one PCs, game consoles, and battery chargers for power tools, and e-bikes, said the company.

With the HiperLCS-2 power supply designers can achieve no-load input power of less than 50 mW at 400 VDC input and provide a continuously regulated output, said the company, which allows for compliance with no-load and standby efficiency regulations. “HiperLCS-2 devices operate at high efficiency across the load range with dissipation so low that direct heat transfer through the FR4 PCB is all that is required, eliminating heat sinks in adapter designs up to 220-W continuous output with up to 170 percent peak power capability,” said Power Integrations.

The HiperLCS-2 devices feature self-powered start-up and provide the start-up bias for a PFC stage using the company’s HiperPFS ICs. The secondary-side sensing provides less than one percent regulation accuracy across line and load range and across production variations.

A reference design, DER-672, is available to evaluate the HiperLCS-2 ICs. Pricing starts at $3.20 per chipset in quantities of 10,000.