Power Integrations introduces an AEC-Q100 certified flyback switch IC

With the continuous development and application of autonomous driving and new energy technologies, functional safety has also received more and more attention from the automotive industry. In the field of intelligent vehicles, we often see the words ISO 26262, AEC-Q100, what does that mean?

Each industry has its own set of safety standards, and the goal of ISO 26262 is to establish a unified functional safety standard that meets the needs of all automotive electronic systems. Functional safety involves all parts of the development process, including specification, design, implementation, integration, certification, and validation, but also includes production, management, and service processes. As a result, the automotive industry-specific ISO 26262 functional safety standard was developed to meet a higher level of safety requirements.

So does the weight of the AEC-Q100 matter? AEC-Q100 carries out strict quality and reliability confirmation for each device, confirming whether the product data sheet, purpose of use, function description, etc. proposed by the manufacturer meets the initial required function, and whether the function and performance can be consistent after continuous use. With changes in automotive standards and the development of new AEC tests, the AEC-Q100 has undergone several revisions since its launch. Therefore, to pass AEC-Q100, it also proves that its products have excellent safety design strength.

PI introduces the InnoSwitch3-AQ, an AEC-Q100 certified flyback switch IC that integrates a 750 V MOSFET and secondary side detection. The newly certified device family is suitable for electric vehicle applications such as traction inverters, OBCs (on-board chargers), EMS (Energy Management DC/DC bus converters) and BMS (battery management systems).

PI has always taken safety and reliability as the starting point and goal of product development, and the performance indicators of InnoSwitch™3-AQ can also be seen in the strict requirements of production. InnoSwitch™3-AQ is currently certified to the AEC-Q100 standard and its production fabs and assembly plants are certified to IATF16949. In particular, the failure rate of InnoSwitch3-AQ continues the high reliability characteristic of InnoSwitch™3 <0.02 PPM.

Jason Yan, Senior Technical Manager at Power Integrations, introduced the key features of InnoSwitch™3-AQ to the media: The InnoSwitch™3-AQ still uses PI's high-speed FluxLink coupling technology to achieve a highly accurate combined input voltage and load adjustment of ±3% without the need for dedicated isolation transformer detection windings and optical couplings. FluxLink technology maintains output voltage stabilization even under transient stress testing, which is particularly challenging for PSR-based solutions.

The InnoSwitch3-AQ represents a high level of integration for flyback controllers, enabling automotive power supplies to have a very small number of components and a very small PCB area. Jason Yan mentioned: "The InnoSwitch™3-AQ is in a surface-mount InSOP package with a primary to secondary creepage distance of 11 mm, exceeding the stringent requirements of high altitude (5000 m +) insulation, and the product's on-chip synchronous rectifier controller provides over 90% efficiency at a nominal input voltage of 400 VDC. The optimized InnoSwitch3-AQ design enables no-load energy consumption of less than 10mW over the entire input voltage range."

One of the advantages of InnoSwitch™3-AQ is that it provides consistent high efficiency across the input voltage range and supports high ambient temperature applications. The high efficiency benefits greatly reduce the temperature rise of the device, making it more suitable for automotive applications with high ambient temperatures. Jason Yan also introduced the "DER-840" a 30W emergency power reference design for everyone to learn and exchange, his wide input range: 30 VDC to 550 VDC input, 12 VDC output.

The DER-840 can be rectified in different ways: "Synchronous rectification can be used at the output, or ordinary diode rectification can be used. We also do automotive certification, so at the design side, you can choose Qspeed ordinary diode rectifier to do it, if you want to achieve a more efficient design, you can choose InnoSwitch3 synchronous rectifier to do it." Jason Yan said.

The DER-859Q design with StackFET is suitable for emergency power applications with higher power battery bus voltages. Even for commonly used 400V busbars, StackFET can distribute heat evenly, ensuring a lower device temperature rise and thus meeting the design requirements of higher ambient temperatures.