Switcher offers industry’s lowest quiescent current

8th September 2014

Nat Bowers

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Datasheet

Suitable for applications such as smart meters, home automation equipment and white goods, Texas Instruments has introduced a 700V switcher with a quiescent current of 100μA at full load. The manufacturer has claimed that this is the industry's lowest quiescent current, at just half the power consumption of existing solutions.

Integrating a 700V power MOSFET start-up current source and internal current sensing, the UCC28880 increases the overall energy efficiency of “always-on” non-isolated power systems with output currents up to 100mA. With the high-voltage switcher, designers can build different converter topologies, such as buck, buck-boost and flyback, without adding extra semiconductor components. This enables a reduction in system cost and overall power supply size, while maintaining high efficiency and system performance.

The controller features a current limit function and inductor current runaway protection in order to protect against under load short-circuit conditions and ensure design reliability. Over-temperature protection with hysteretic re-start is also provided for safe operation. Increasing creepage and clearance, high-voltage pins are segregated to one side of the package, which maximises separation between low and high voltage pins.

Based on the UCC28880, TI provides an offline, AC/DC reference design. This enables the quick design of a low-cost, low-power non-isolated high-side buck converter with a total solution size of 38x32x22mm that supports 13V, while generating up to 100mA of output current. It features a buck converter with integrated switch and can be used in numerous industrial applications.

Dave Freeman, Chief Technology Officer, high-voltage power solutions group, TI, comments: “Hundreds of millions of smart meters around the world continuously draw power from the grid to measure energy use and provide feedback to the utility. Even though meters consume relatively small amounts of power that is not charged to the customer, when you multiply the amount of energy needed to power the devices, it makes sense to minimise the energy consumed. New power conversion technologies, such as TI’s new high-voltage power solution will help smart meters minimise energy consumption.”

Supplied in a tiny 7-pin SO package size of 29.4mm², the UCC28880 switcher is priced at $0.55 in 1,000 unit quantities. TI also offers a low-side buck EVM and a high-side buck EVM for $49.00 each.