
30127427
FIGURE 6. ZCD Waveforms for Flyback Design
ZERO CURRENT DETECTION
ZCD is implemented with a 100kΩ resistor from the ZCD pin
to a coupled winding on the transformer or inductor as shown
in Figure 5. This winding is also used to bootstrap VCC after
start-up. When QSW turns off, the voltage at the ZCD pin
(VZCD) increases as energy is transferred through the auxiliary
winding. The circuit arms when VZCD exceeds 1.5V. Then,
when the energy is fully transferred, VZCD decreases towards
zero. When VZCD falls below 1.3V, the transformer is assumed
to be demagnetized, the circuit disarms, and QSW is turned
back on as shown in Figure 6. The ZCD pin voltage will remain
low until QSW is turned off via peak detection and the cycle
repeats.
SWITCHING FREQUENCY
With a constant on-time and variable off-time, there is a vari-
able switching frequency:
Figure 4 shows that the minimum switching frequency occurs
at the peak of the rectified AC waveform, while the maximum
switching frequency occurs at the valley.
ERROR AMPLIFIER
The LM3450/50A internal error amplifier is used for non-iso-
lated designs (boost) where the output voltage can be directly
sensed, via a resistor divider, at the FB pin. The FB pin is the
inverting input of the trans-conductance amplifier which is
regulated to 2.5V. The COMP pin is the output of the amplifier
and external compensation is placed from COMP to GND in
the form of a single capacitor (CCMP) as shown in Figure 5, a
series resistor and capacitor, or both. The output of the am-
plifier sources or sinks current as necessary to force the
inputs of the amplifier to be equal. The compensation method
depends upon the transient performance desired and re-
quires a loop gain analysis. This analysis can be somewhat
complex and cumbersome. A detailed analysis can be found
Application Notes AN-2098 and/or AN-2150.
If the COMP pin voltage (VCMP) falls below 1.4V at any time,
the device enters burst mode where the GATE is off for 340µs
then is turned on. If VCMP is still below 1.4V at the end of the
on-time then another 340µs off-time occurs. However, if
VCMP has risen above 1.4V, the converter continues switching
until it falls below the threshold again. This feature is neces-
sary to prevent the output of the converter from rising arbi-
trarily high because the minimum on-time of the device
prevents less energy transfer.
The LM3450/50A also implements both feedback short circuit
protection and output over-voltage protection (OVP) functions
at the FB pin. If VFB exceeds 3V, then OVP is engaged and
the part stops switching until VFB falls below 3V. In the same
manner, if VFB falls below 168mV, then shutdown is engaged
and switching stops until VFB exceeds 188mV.
The flyback topology is frequently used to provide isolation
from input to output. Since, the current transfer ratio (CTR) of
standard optical isolation varies over temperature, proper
regulation using primary error amplifiers is difficult. An error
amplifier is usually placed in the secondary to regulate the
output voltage accurately. To accommodate isolated designs,
the LM3450/50A internal error amplifier can be bypassed by
placing a 5.11kΩ resistor from FB to GND. This engages a
5kΩ pull-up resistor from COMP to an internal 5V rail.
SECONDARY ERROR AMPLIFIER
For isolated designs, the error amplifier on the secondary
should take the form of a proportional integral (PI) compen-
sator. The amplifier is frequently implemented with an
LMV431. The output voltage resistor divider (RFB1, RFB2) pro-
vides the sensed output voltage to the LMV431 inverting
input. The PI compensation is achieved by connecting RSC
and CSC in between the LMV431 input and output, shown in
Figure 7. In addition, CCMP is placed from COMP to GND on
the primary for higher frequency noise attenuation.
In addition to the basic error amplifier, a soft-start circuit can
be implemented using a capacitor, two diodes and a Zener
diode as shown in Figure 7. This secondary softstart circuit
has no restart mechanism, therefore a primary side softstart
is recommended as described in the SOFTSTART section of
this document.
30127428
FIGURE 7. Secondary Error Amplifier
15 www.national.com
LM3450 LM3450A