700V power management switcher cuts quiescent power consumption in half

Paul Boughton

Expanding its portfolio of high-voltage power solutions for offline AC/DC designs, Texas Instruments has introduced a 700-V switcher with the industry’s lowest quiescent current of less than 100uA – half the power consumption of existing solutions. 

The UCC28880 controller integrates a 700-V power MOSFET and high-voltage current source, increasing overall energy efficiency of ‘always-on’ non-isolated power systems with output currents up to 100 mA, such as smart meters, home automation equipment and white goods. 

“Hundreds of millions of smart meters around the world continuously draw power from the grid to measure energy use and provide feedback to the utility,” said Dave Freeman, chief technology officer for TI’s high-voltage power solutions group. “Even though meters consume relatively small amounts of power that is not charged to the customer, when you multiply the amount of energy needed to power the devices, it makes sense to minimize the energy consumed. New power conversion technologies, such as TI’s new high-voltage power solution will help smart meters minimise energy consumption.”

The UCC28880 high-voltage switcher reduces system cost and minimises the overall size of the power supply, while maintaining high efficiency and system performance. Designers can use the switcher to build different converter topologies, such as buck, buck-boost and flyback, without adding extra semiconductor components. 

Features and benefits of the UCC28880 include:

* Industry’s lowest power consumption: As the load is reduced, the quiescent current is reduced to below 100-uA;

* Reduces application size and overall system cost: The circuit integrates a 700-V MOSFET, start-up current source and internal current sensing in a tiny 7-pin SO package size of 29.4mm2. Additionally, no external compensation is needed which further reduces component count and board space.;

* Excellent system performance under excessive currents: Along with current limit function, the controller’s inductor current runaway protection helps protect against under load short-circuit conditions to ensure design reliability;

* Thermal protection: The device provides over-temperature protection with hysteretic re-start for safe operation;

* Increased creepage and clearance: High-voltage pins are segregated to one side of the package, which maximises separation between low and high voltage pins.

An offline, AC/DC reference design based on the UCC28880 (PMP8550) enables designers to quickly design a low-cost, low-power non-isolated high-side buck converter with a total solution size of 38mm by 32mm by 22mm that supports 13V, while generating up to 100mA of output current. The reference design features a buck converter with integrated switch and can be used in numerous industrial applications.