New Industry Products

Fairchild CCM PFC Controller Minimizes Power Losses in Multi-Stage Power Supplies

March 09, 2010 by Jeff Shepard

Fairchild Semiconductor has developed a CCM PFC controller for 300W to 2kW power supply designs that are said to bring high system efficiency, high power factor and low THD. Through its high level of integration, this CCM PFC controller eliminates 54 external components.

With all PFC controllers striving to reach the ideal power factor (PF) of 1, Fairchild’s CCM PFC controller, the FAN6982, reaches near unity with 0.999 of PF at full load. With this, utility companies do not have to supply as much power to electronic applications. According to the company, with power factor controllers like the FAN6982, ac harmonic currents resulting from today’s complex loads can be virtually eliminated, thereby allowing for a more efficient power distribution system.

Fairchild says its FAN6982 maintains high system efficiency at light load conditions to meet 20% load system efficiency requirements of ENERGY STAR® regulations and Climate Savers Computing Initiatives. It achieves this by reducing capacitive switching losses and by reducing the voltage conversion ratio, which results in less conduction losses in the boost switch.

This CCM PFC controller reduces external components and is said to offer ease of design through its high level of integration. Features of the CCM PFC controller are: built-in brown-out protection, eliminating 12 components; adjustable PFC output, eliminating 17 components; RDY pin for power-on-sequence, eliminating 15 components; 30V operating voltage capability, eliminating 10 components; and PFC soft-start, eliminating 4 components – in total decreasing bill of materials (BOM) by 54 devices.

Since many ac-sourced electronic applications have a microphone, amplifier or loudspeaker, which need an accurate reproduction of sound, this controller is said to offer exceptionally low Total Harmonic Distortion (4.6% at full load) which reduces these harmonics and meets class D requirements of IEC 1000-3-2. The FAN6982 does this through its switching-charge technology that senses input current and voltage directly, helping to improve PF and THD.

The FAN6982 is priced at US $0.69 in 1,000 quantity pieces with a delivery of 8 weeks ARO.