PowiGaN enables efficient, low-profile, & stackable PFC circuits
The HiperPFS-5 family of power-factor-correction (PFC) ICs is the only PFC solution utilising gallium nitride (GaN) technology. The highly integrated devices feature a 750 V PowiGaN switch, achieving a 0.98 power factor and 98.3% efficiency without heatsinks for up to 250 W output.
A new design example, DER-977, contains two HiperPFS-5 devices working in parallel to deliver up to 500 W output in a universal-input boost PFC stage. The board maintains a power factor over 0.9 at 20% load and higher than 0.95 at 50% load.
This design uses extremely small boost inductors, thanks to HiperPFS-5’s innovative discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) control technique, which adjusts switching frequency across output load, input line voltage and input line cycle. It reduces boost inductor size by 50% compared to conventional critical-conduction-mode (CRM) boost PFC circuits.
HiperPFS-5 ICs also eliminate the need for bulky heatsinks at the PFC stage. This allows exceptionally low-profile designs that are especially beneficial to flatscreen TVs, as well as industrial and commercial applications. For larger TV screens or other applications that require even higher output power, HiperPFS-5 devices allow multiple PFC stages of the same design to combine their capacity by connecting in parallel. At no load, a simple circuit can disable the second (third, fourth, etc.) PFC stage, keeping no-load consumption below 50 mW.
Highly reliable, highly integrated PowiGaN devices keep efficiency high, component count low and system design simple. In addition to HiperPFS-5, PowiGaN switches are used in a broad range of switcher IC products for more than 60 types of applications.
