Multi-Phase Adaptive On-Time PFC for Better Light Load Efficiency and EMI Performance

Qian Li and Fred C. Lee

ECE Department of Virginia Tech Center for Power Electronics Systems 655 Whittemore Hall, Blacksburg, VA liq07@vt.edu
AbstractWith the fast growing information technologies, high efficiency and high power density become the two major challenges for AC-DC front-end power supplies in all kinds of distributed power system applications. For the power factor correction (PFC) stage, the adaptive on-time control was proposed to achieve high efficiency over the whole load range[1]. The EMI performance of single phase adaptive on time controlled PFC is tested in this paper, and multi-phase approach is used to improve the EMI performance. Since the switching frequency of the adaptive on time control is a variable, the novel adaptive phase angle control is proposed to achieve the best noise cancellation effect, leading to significant EMI filter size reduction. The experiment results show that both high efficiency and high power density can be achieved by the multi-phase adaptive on-time PFC approach.

Another challenge of the of AC-DC front-end converter is the power density. Figure 3 shows the power density roadmap for server/telecom front end converter [5]. The EMI filter, boost inductor and bulk capacitors represent the major portion of the PFC stage size. In a typical 1 kilowatt PFC design, the EMI filter can occupy about 35% ~ 40% size of the whole PFC circuit.
100% 95%
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PFC Target Efficiency DC-DC Target Efficiency Target Efficiency 80 Plus Gold 80 Plus Silver 80 Plus Bronze

Efficiency

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I.

INTRODUCTION

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With the fast growing information technologies, high efficiency and high power density become the two major challenges for AC-DC front-end power supplies in all kinds of distributed power system. Driven strongly by economic and environmental concerns, the efficiency requirement is being pushed by various organizations and programs, such as the 80 PLUS [2], U.S. Energy Star [3] and Climate Savers [4]. 80 plus is a basic efficiency requirement for the front-end converter, as shown in Figure 1. Other than the 80 plus requirement, Climate Savers is targeting at higher efficiency. They even target to achieve 4% or 3% efficiency improvement every year in these coming two years. Moreover, the industry customer is targeting even more aggressive efficiencies, as shown in Figure 1. Not only the efficiency target is set higher, but also 10% and 5% load efficiency is required. To achieve the most stringent efficiency requirement of the whole front-end converter, the corresponding PFC and DC-DC efficiency targets are also shown in Figure 1. Comparing efficiency of todays PFC product which uses the conventional constant frequency average current mode control with the efficiency target, as shown in Figure 2, the light load range efficiency needs to be improved.

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Load Figure 1. Efficiency requirements for AC-DC front-end converters

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Vin = 220Vrms

Efficiency

PFC Target Efficiency Measured

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Load

Figure 2. PFC light load efficiency challenge

In the following sections, the adaptive on-time control to improve light load efficiency for PFC will be illustrated

978-1-4244-8085-2/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

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On Time (us)

briefly first. The efficiency and EMI performance of single phase adaptive on time PFC are tested to compare with the conventional constant frequency PFC. To reduce the EMI noise of the adaptive on time PFC, multi-phase approach is used and the novel adaptive phase shift control is proposed for the adaptive on time PFC to achieve the best noise cancellation effect. At last, the experiment results show the improvement on both efficiency and EMI filter size reduction.

2) Part CCM, part DCM in the half line cycle; 3) DCM for the whole half line cycle.
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Same Ton at different load

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(a). On time profile

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Switching frequency (kHz)

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Heavy load, CCM

Medium load, part CCM part DCM Light load, DCM

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Figure 3. Power density roadmap of sever/telecom front end power supply

II.

ADAPTIVE ON-TIME PFC

The light load efficiency of the conventional constant frequency PFC drops very fast because of high switching frequency related loss, such as turn-on loss, turn-off loss and inductor core loss. The adaptive on-time control [1] can effectively reduce the switching frequency at light load condition and therefore reduce the switching frequency related loss. The on time profile of the adaptive on time PFC is controlled the same as that of the constant frequency PFC in continuous conduction mode (CCM), and it remains unchanged in different load conditions. Based on the boost converter voltage gain in CCM, the on time in a half line cycle can be expressed as equation (1) below,
Ton (t ) = Vo (t ) Vin (t ) Vo (t ) f const

(b). Frequency profile Figure 4. On time and frequency profile of adaptive on-time control at 90V input in different load conditions

The efficiency comparison of single phase adaptive on time PFC and constant frequency PFC is shown in Figure 5. Since the circuit operation condition under the two control methods are the same in CCM, the heavy load efficiency are the same. However, in light load range, the adaptive on time control shows significant efficiency improvement.
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(1)

Efficiency

where fconst is the switching frequency in CCM. The on time and frequency profiles of the adaptive on time control within on half line cycle at 90V input in different load conditions are shown in Figure 4. From Figure 4, we can see that by keeping the same on time profile at different load, the switching frequency of adaptive on-time control is constant in heavy load, and it is reduced at light load to enter DCM operation. The two sides of the half line cycle will enter DCM prior to the middle of the half line cycle when load is decreasing, so there are three operation modes in total: 1) CCM for the whole half line cycle;

96.5% 96.0% 95.5% 95.0% 94.5% 94.0% 93.5% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Vin=220V, Vo=400V
Fs=70kHz Adaptive Ton

Load

Figure 5. Efficiency comparison of single phase adaptive on time PFC and constant frequency PFC

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The average DM noise comparison of single phase adaptive on time PFC and constant frequency PFC are shown in Figure 6. The noise peak of the constant frequency PFC at each order of switching harmonic can be clearly identified. The EMI noise of the adaptive on time PFC is a continuously changed curve because the switching frequency varies in a half line cycle in DCM, leading to a wider frequency band. Based on the tested EMI noise magnitude, in order to meet the noise standard, the corresponding attenuation requirement can be identified. For DM noise, the single phase adaptive on time PFC needs 64dB attenuation at 150kHz, while the single phase constant frequency PFC needs 79dB attenuation at 210kHz. Once we get the attenuation requirements, the filter corner frequency can be calculated, and the results are shown in table I. For the CM noise, if the balance technique [6] is applied, the CM noise of the PFC is very small and can be neglected. So the CM noise is mainly determined by the downstream DC/DC converter. In the filter design process, we just use the CM noise of the LLC resonant converter with 1MHz switching frequency. Based on the measured DM and CM noise, the EMI filter is design and prototyped, as shown in Figure 7.

TABLE I.

DM CORNER FREQUENCY COMPARISON DM Corner Frequency 33.5kHz 33.4kHz

Control Method Adaptive On Time Constant Frequency

III.

ADAPTIVE PHASE ANGLE CONTROL FOR MULTIPHASE ADAPTIVE ON TIME PFC

The multi-phase interleaving is an effect way to reduce the EMI noise due to the ripple cancellation. In paper [7], the multi-phase PFC with a properly selected phase angle is presented to greatly reduce the EMI filter size. In this paper, as long as the switching frequency and phase number are selected, the phase shift angle is a fixed value. Nevertheless, the situation is different for multi-phase adaptive on time PFC since the switching frequency is a variable. The remaining part of this section will use a four-phase interleaved adaptive on time PFC as an example to illustrate the benefit of interleaving. From Figure 4, we can see that the switching frequency is changing with load variation. Figure 6 clearly shows that the EMI spectrum is a continuous curve so the filter will always be designed based on the noise magnitude at 150kHz. In order to reduced the noise magnitude at 150kHz, proper phase shift angle of the multi-phase PFC should be chosen. There are many sources of the 150kHz harmonic, such as the 3rd harmonic of 50kHz ripple, 4th order of 37.5kHz ripple, 5th harmonic of 30kHz ripple, etc. Among these sources, the 3rd harmonic of 50kHz ripple is dominant. If the phase shift angle is chosen to 30 degrees, the 3rd harmonic of 50kHz ripple will be totally cancelled with 4 phase interleaving. The EMI noise comparison between single phase adaptive on time PFC and 4 phase adaptive on time PFC with 30 degrees phase shift is shown in Figure 8. It can be clearly seen that the DM noise at 150kHz is reduced by about 10dB.

Figure 6. DM noise comparison of single phase adaptive on time PFC and constant frequency PFC

Figure 8. EMI noise comparison of single phase adaptive on time PFC and 4 phase adaptive on time PFC with 30 degree phase shift Figure 7. Filter prototype for single phase constant frequency PFC and adaptive on time PFC

Although the 3rd order harmonic of 50kHz ripple is totally cancelled, there are still 150kHz noise contributed by high order harmonics of lower frequency ripple (37.5kHz, 30kHz, etc). The fixed phase shift angle is not able to cancel these harmonics. In order to get the best cancellation effect

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of the 150kHz noise, the novel adaptive phase angle control is proposed. The basic concept can be illustrated in Figure 9. When the switching frequency is between 50kHz to 70kHz, the 3rd harmonic of switching frequency ripple is dominant for DM noise, so 30 degrees phase shift is used to totally cancel the 3rd order harmonic. As the switching frequency is changing, the same principle applies. For example, if the switching frequency is between 37.5kHz and 50kHz, the 4th harmonic of switching frequency ripple is dominant for DM noise, so 22.5 degrees phase shift is used to totally cancel the 4th order harmonic. By following this phase angle control method, the DM noise at 150kHz can be cancelled. The proper phase shift angle at different switching frequency is summarized in Figure 10.
4-phase with 30 shift to cancel 3rd order harmonic.
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the phase angle at low frequency range (less than 25kHz) can be reasonably approximated by a simple straight line, as shown as the red dashed line. In this way, the phase angle algorithm can be greatly simplified. IV. EXPERIMENT VERIFICATION

The 4 phase interleaved adaptive on-time PFC prototype was built for experiment verification. The 4 600uH boost inductors are implemented by using CoolMu 77894 toroid core from Magnetics Inc. Two 220uF electrolytic capacitors are in parallel for the output bulk capacitor. The boost inductor waveforms at heavy load and light load are shown in Figure 11 and Figure 12, respectively.

Typical Frequency Profile

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Frequency(kHz)

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4-phase with 22.5 shift to cancel 4th order harmonic. 4-phase with 18 shift to cancel 5th order harmonic.

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Tline/2

Figure 9. Adaptive phase angle selection for adaptive on time PFC

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Phase shift angle (degree)

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70kHz, 14.3us

Exact Phase Angle Simplified Phase Angle

30 phase shift, 1.2us Figure 11. Inductor current at heavy load Vin=110V, Vo=400V, Po=960W

Frequency (kHz)
Figure 10. Phase angle selection at different switching frequency

In Figure 10, the blue solid line the phase angle selection criterion of the adaptive phase angle control. This is a stair case curve and the steps get smaller when the frequency is reduced. It is difficult to implement this method because the phase-angle vs. frequency curve is not continuous. Because the inductor current ripple is lower at lower frequency, the low frequency current ripple has very small contribution to the EMI noise, which means the phase angle selection is not that critical at low frequency range. Based on the analysis,

From Figure 11 and Figure 12, we can see that the phase shift angle is automatically adjusted based on the present cycle switching frequency. In DCM operation condition, since the switching in one half line cycle changes, the phase shift angle changes accordingly. The tested efficiencies at low line input and high line input of the multi-phase adaptive on time PFC are shown in Figure 13 and Figure 14, respectively. In both figures, the switching frequency of 1 phase CCM PFC is 70kHz. It indicates that the light load efficiency is greatly improved over the conventional constant frequency PFC.

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control, the noise magnitude at 150kHz is further reduced by 6dB. Based on the tested noise magnitude, the DM filter corner frequency of the adaptive phase angle controlled PFC can be calculated as 49kHz. Comparing with the single phase adaptive on time PFC, there is about 16kHz increase. By using the same CM filter as the single phase PFC and redesigned DM filter, the total EMI filter size can be reduced by 50%. The filter prototype for the 4 phase adaptive on time PFC is shown in Figure 16.

22.5, 1.56us

40kHz , 25us

15, 1.44us

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Figure 12. Inductor current at light load

Vin=110V, Vo=400V

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Figure 15. EMI noise comparison of 4 phase adaptive on time PFC with 30 degree phase shift and 4 phase adaptive on time PFC with adaptive phase shift

Efficiency

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1 phase const-fs 4 phase adaptive Ton

Power

Figure 13. Efficiency comparison at low line input

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Vin=220V, Vo=400V

Figure 16. Filter prototype for 4 phase adaptive on time PFC with adaptive phase angle control

Efficiency

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1 phase const-fs 4 phase adaptive Ton

V.

CONCLUSION

Power

Figure 14. Efficiency comparison at high line input

In this paper, the multi-phase adaptive on time control PFC with adaptive phase angle control is proposed. Improved light load efficiency is achieved by reducing switching frequency. The novel adaptive phase angle control can achieve the best noise cancellation effect, therefore greatly reduce the EMI filter size. The analysis is verified by experiments results. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The author would like to thank the Power Manage Consortium (PMC) for the support.

The tested DM noise is shown in Figure 15 and it is compared with the noise of multi-phase adaptive on time PFC with fixed 30 degrees phase shift. Since better ripple cancellation can be achieved by the adaptive phase angle

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REFERENCES
[1] Qian Li; Lee, F. C.; Ming Xu; Chuanyun Wang; "Light Load Efficiency Improvement for PFC", Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, 2009, pp. 3755 - 3760 http://www.80plus.org/ http://www.energystar.gov/ http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/

[5]

[6]

[2] [3] [4]

[7]

Lee, F.C.; Ming Xu; Shou Wang; Bing Lu; "Design Challenges for Distributed Power Systems", International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference, 2006, Vol. 1, pp. 1 - 15. Pengju Kong; Shuo Wang; Chuanyun Wang; Lee, F. C.; "Reduction Technique for the Interleaved Multichannel PFC Converter", Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, 2008, pp. 729 - 735 Chuanyun Wang; Ming Xu; Lee. F.C. Bing Lu; "EMI Study for the Interleaved Multi-Channel PFC", Power Electronics Specialists Conference, 2007, pp. 1336 - 1342

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