Document Number: 73868
S11-0975–Rev. C, 16-May-11
www.vishay.com
7
Vishay Siliconix
SiP11203, SiP11204
This document is subject to change without notice.
THE PRODUCTS DESCRIBED HEREIN AND THIS DOCUMENT ARE SUBJECT TO SPECIFIC DISCLAIMERS, SET FORTH AT www.vishay.com/doc?91000
MOSFET RECTIFIER DRIVERS
Start-Up
At converter start-up, V
L
will typically be at or near 0 V.
Until such time as the UVLO
R
threshold is exceeded,
the main synchronous rectifier drivers are disabled, as
the supply voltage for the IC may be insufficient to
ensure that the output drivers will fully respond to input
commands. Without precautionary measures,
capacitive coupling between the drains and gates of
the synchronous rectifiers could cause spurious
conduction in the rectifiers. To prevent this, special
hold-off MOSFETs are switched in until the main
drivers are enabled. These internal hold-off
MOSFETs, which connect from OUTA to PGND and
OUTB to PGND, can typically conduct in excess of
400 mA with 1 V on OUTA or OUTB (Z
OUT
≅ 2.5 Ω).
Once V
L
rises above UVLO
R
, the main drivers are
enabled and the part assumes its normal mode of
operation, with pulses at INA being used to control
OUTA and pulses at INB being used to control OUTB.
Figure 3 and its related text provide additional details
on this topic.
Normal Operation
When enabled, the main driver outputs are non-
inverting with respect to the input signal. The drivers
are designed to provide the high peak currents
(2 - 4 A) required to rapidly charge and discharge the
gates of large synchronous rectifier MOSFETs, with a
greater turn-off (pull-down) current than turn-on
(pull-up) current, to prevent shoot-through in the
synchronous rectifiers.
Shut-Down
In the typical application circuit, cessation of primary
timing signals at INA and INB would cause both OUTA
and OUTB to be pulled high, which at the system level
would short-circuit of the converter output to ground
via the synchronous rectifiers. To avoid possible
negative effects of such an event, the SiP11203/
SiP11204 uses a missing-pulses detector to monitor
INA and INB and, if necessary, set the main output
drivers to a high-impedance state. At the same time
that the main drivers are disabled, a pull-down device
(current sink) of user-settable value is enabled on each
output, to gradually discharge OUTA and OUTB,
thereby performing a soft turn-off of the rectifier
MOSFETs. The pull-down current is set by the R
PD
resistor, and is given by the formula
I
PULL-DOWN
= 500 V/R
PD
. Such an event also causes
bypass capacitor at the the V
REF
pin to be discharged,
preparing the IC for a voltage-loop soft-start should the
primary resume sending timing signals. Further details
are given in the Applications Information section.
Synchronous Rectifier Phase-In
With a resistor connected between the R
DEL
pin and
ground, the SiP11203/SiP11204 will increase the low-
to-high propagation delay time from INA and INB to
OUTA and OUTB by an amount ΔT
DEL
. This interval
is proportional to the resistance used, and inversely
proportional to the voltage on V
REF
(ΔT
DEL
= k x R
DEL
/
V
REF
). As this delay occurs for high-going input
transitions only, it constitutes a hold-off time for the
synchronous rectifiers. As can be seen, ΔT
DEL
decreases as V
REF
ramps from a low level to its final
1.225 V level at start-up, or following any soft-start
event. If ΔT
DEL
is set to start at a sufficient value to
allow only diode-mode conduction in the rectifier
MOSFETs, the result will be a gentle transition from
diode-mode operation to fully synchronous
rectification, thereby avoiding a sudden change in the
average voltage drop seen at the output rectifiers.
Conventional operation can be achieved by tying the
R
DEL
pin to V
L
. The synchronous rectifier phase-in
function is explained in more detail in the Applications
Information section.
Output Over-voltage Protection: SiP11203 versus
SiP11204
For maximum flexibility in the way that the SiP11203/
SiP11204 parts react to an output over-voltage event,
the input to the over-voltage protect comparator
(OVP
IN
) is brought out separately from the error
amplifier inputs. Additionally, the outputs of the
SiP11203 and the SiP11204 respond differently to
an over-voltage: the SiP11203 is designed to rapidly
discharge an output bus that is experiencing an over-
voltage, while the SiP11204 is designed to avoid
sinking current from other supplies feeding the same
bus, relying instead upon system-level intervention to
provide complete load protection. The OVP
IN
function
is explained in more detail in the Applications
Information section.