Single-stage PFC and isolated regulation architecture delivers over 95% peak efficiency

Eggtronic has revealed an evaluation board (EVB) that enables engineers to speed the development and greatly decrease the size and cost of 240W PD 3.1 applications while supporting ultra-fast charging through industry-leading efficiency.

The SmartEgg 240W PD 3.1 EVB has a peak efficiency above 95% and operates at over 90% efficiency from light load to full load. A single stage that combines ZVS PFC and quasi-forward isolated regulation greatly reduces BOM and size of key components (including storage capacitors and magnetics) compared to conventional PFC+LLC and PFC+Asymmetric Half-Bridge (AHB) architectures. The result is a platform that produces light-load energy savings of up to 50% and attains a power density of 21.9W/in3 (1.34W/cm3) to support extremely compact charger designs and, most importantly, dramatically lowers BOM cost.

Based on the company's innovative SmartEgg AC/DC architecture, the new EVB includes proprietary mixed-signal, low-power EPIC (Eggtronic Power Integrated Controller) 2.0 IC controllers and features built-in protection against overpower, overvoltage, overtemperature, short circuits and brownouts. EPIC, based on a 32-bit RISC-V core and a rich set of high-performance digital and analog peripherals, includes a flexible internal structure that supports multiple independent control loops of standard and proprietary power conversion architectures.

"Users of laptops, tablets, smartphones and other power-hungry devices with a USB-C interface expect small, lightweight, high-power-density technologies that minimise charge time while saving money as cost is always a key driver in the choice of the power converters," says Eggtronic CEO and founder, Igor Spinella. "The new SmartEgg 240W PD 3.1 EVB helps engineers to address these demands in the shortest possible time and with the smallest number of low-cost components."

Supplied as a dual-port module, the EVB can be quickly modified for any number of charging ports thanks to the flexibility of the EPIC 2.0 controller, which supports many slave buck converters, each acting as a standalone port. Because the master EPIC IC on the secondary side adjusts all the charging cases by distributing the power required to each port or allocating the full power to a single port via I2C communication, the power-sharing behaviour can be customised.