Plenary Lecture

Efficient isolated DC-DC converters with maximum integration scale

Professor Jan Doutreloigne
CMST (University of Gent + IMEC)
Technologiepark 914-A
9052 Zwijnaarde (Gent)
Belgium
E-mail: jdoutrel@elis.ugent.be

Abstract: Certain system or safety requirements may impose the use of isolated DC-DC converters for powering the electronic circuitry in various applications. Typical examples are the power supplies in central-office ADSL and VDSL telecommunication equipment or the power supply units in Power-over-Ethernet devices. Widely used isolated converter topologies are the flyback, the forward and the combined forward-flyback architectures, where the driving electronics at the primary side of the pulse transformer and the rectifying electronics at the secondary side are employing discrete power transistors and/or diodes. This talk will show how the electronics at both sides of the pulse transformer can be integrated into a monolithic IC in an advanced smart-power technology, leading to a very compact isolated converter solution consisting of only 4 components: the pulse transformer, 2 chips (1 at each side) and an opto-coupling device, and this for output power levels up to 100W. New techniques for reducing the silicon cost and for achieving maximum power efficiency will be presented. This includes the use of active-clamping H-bridge driving, synchronous rectification with reduced driving voltage and active voltage clamping. Specific monolithic IC implementations for telecommunication applications will be analyzed and experimental data will be discussed. Finally, this monolithic approach will be benchmarked against existing discrete solutions.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Prof. Jan Doutreloigne obtained his Master and PhD degrees in electronic engineering from the University of Gent (Belgium) in 1987 and 1992 respectively. His PhD research dealt with the development of a complementary TFT technology for the integration of driver circuits on active matrix LCDs. From 1992 to 1998, he was a full-time lecturer at the University of Cuenca (Ecuador) in the area of electronics, telecommunications and computer sciences. In 1998, he joined the Centre for Microsystems Technology (CMST), which is a research facility at the University of Gent as well as an associated laboratory of the Inter-university MicroElectronics Centre (IMEC). Prof. Jan Doutreloigne is appointed as full-time professor at the University of Gent, responsible for conducting research in the area of advanced electronic microsystems and teaching courses in the field of microelectronics. At the same time he is also an R&D manager at IMEC, responsible for leading and coordinating national and European research projects related to microelectronic design. He is currently leading a research team at the CMST laboratory, specialized in the full-custom design of mixed analog-digital integrated circuits and the development of advanced high-voltage transistors in smart-power technologies. He is author or co-author of more than 100 papers in international technical journals and conference proceedings, and is inventor of several patents.