Eggtronic has unveiled an evaluation board (EVB) that allows engineers to speed the development and significantly reduce the size and cost of 240 W power delivery (PD) 3.1 applications while supporting ultra-fast charging through industry-leading efficiency.
The SmartEgg 240 W 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 zero voltage switching (ZVS) power factor correction (PFC) and quasi-forward isolated regulation significantly reduces the bill of materials (BOM) and size of key components (including storage capacitors and magnetics) compared to traditional PFC+LLC and PFC+ Asymmetric Half-Bridge (AHB) architectures. The result is a platform that delivers light-load energy savings of up to 50%, achieves a power density of 21.9 W/in3 (1.34 W/cm3) to support extremely compact charger designs and, most importantly, dramatically reduces BOM cost.
Based on Eggtronic’s innovative SmartEgg AC/DC architecture, the new EVB incorporates proprietary mixed-signal, low-power EPIC (Eggtronic Power Integrated Controller) 2.0 IC controllers and features built-in protection against over-power, over-voltage, over-temperature, short circuits and brownouts. EPIC, which is based on a 32-bit RISC-V core and a rich set of high-performance digital and analog peripherals, incorporates a flexible internal structure that supports multiple independent control loops of both 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 minimize 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 240 W 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 SmartEgg 240 W PD 3.1 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 needed to each port or allocating the full power to a single port via I2C communication, the power-sharing behavior can be customized.
