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29
MOSFET Protection
As in any flyback design, it is important to limit the drain excursion to a safe value, e.g. below the MOSFET BV
DSS
which
is 700 V. Figure 52 a−b−c present possible implementations:
Figure 52. Different Options to Clamp the Leakage Spike
Figure 52a: the simple capacitor limits the voltage
according to the lateral MOSFET body−diode shall never be
forward biased, either during start−up (because of a large
leakage inductance) or in normal operation as shown by
Figure 50. This condition sets the maximum voltage that can
be reflected during t
F
. As a result, the flyback voltage which
is reflected on the drain at the switch opening cannot be
larger than the input voltage. When selecting components,
you must adopt a turn ratio which adheres to the following
Equation 6. This option is only valid for low power
applications, e.g. below 5 W, otherwise chances exist to
destroy the MOSFET. After evaluating the leakage
inductance, you can compute C with (Equation 7). Typical
values are between 100 pF and up to 470 pF. Large
capacitors increase capacitive losses...
Figure 52b: the most standard circuitry is called the RCD
network. You calculate
R
CLAMP
and C
CLAMP
using the
following formulae:
R
CLAMP
+
2 @ V
CLAMP
ǒ
V
CLAMP
) (V
OUT
) V
F
) @ N
Ǔ
L
LEAK
@ I
LEAK
2
@ f
SW
(eq. 19)
C
CLAMP
+
V
CLAMP
V
RIPPLE
@ f
SW
@ R
CLAMP
(eq. 20)
V
CLAMP
is usually selected 50−80 V above the reflected
value
N x (V
OUT
+ V
F
). The diode needs to be a fast one
and a MUR160 represents a good choice. One major
drawback of the RCD network lies in its dependency upon
the peak current. Worse case occurs when
I
PEAK
and V
IN
are
maximum and
V
OUT
is close to reach the steady−state value.
Figure 52c: this option is probably the most expensive of
all three but it offers the best protection degree. If you need
a very precise clamping level, you must implement a Zener
diode or a TVS. There are little technology differences
behind a standard Zener diode and a TVS. However, the die
area is far bigger for a transient suppressor than that of Zener.
A 5 W Zener diode like the 1N5388B will accept 180 W
peak power if it lasts less than 8.3 ms. If the peak current in
the worse case (e.g. when the PWM circuit maximum
current limit works) multiplied by the nominal zener voltage
exceeds these 180 W, then the diode will be destroyed when
the supply experiences overloads. A transient suppressor
like the P6KE200 still dissipates 5 W of continuous power
but is able to accept surges up to 600 W @ 1 ms. Select the
Zener or TVS clamping level between 40 to 80 volts above
the reflected output voltage when the supply is heavily
loaded.
As a good design practice, it is recommended to
implement one of this protection to ensure a maximum drain
pin voltage below 650 V (to have some margin between
drain pin voltage and BV
DSS
) during most stringent
operating conditions (high V
IN
and peak power condition).