Switching power supply circuit

• US 7,817,446 B2
• Filed: 11/28/2007
• Issued: 10/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd. (MinebeaMitsumi Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd. (MinebeaMitsumi Inc.)
• Inventors: Endo, Naoto, Shima, Hitoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel; Rajnikant B
• Application Number:
  US11/998,137
• Publication Number:
  US 20080129266A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,056 Days
• Field of Search: 363 16- 20, 363/21.03, 363/21.12, 363/84, 363/89, 363/127, 363/132, 323/224, 323271-274, 323282-288, 323/22, 315/224, 315/194, 315/307
• US Class Current: 363/21.12
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/0058 by employing soft switching techniques, i.e. commutation of transistors when applied voltage is zero or when current flow is zero using an auxiliary actively switched resonant commutation circuit connected to an intermediate DC voltage or between two push-pull branches of an inverter bridge H02M7/4811; in resonant inverters H02M7/4815; in inverters operating from a resonant DC source H02M7/4826
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/158 including plural semiconductor devices as final control devices for a single load
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/10 Technologies improving the efficiency by using switched-mode power supplies [SMPS], i.e. efficient power electronics conversion e.g. power factor correction or reduction of losses in power supplies or efficient standby modes

Abstract

Disclosed a switching power supply circuit of current resonance type including: a switching element; an LC resonance circuit to resonate current flowing through the switching element; and a detection circuit to perform a detection associated with an output current amount on the basis of an operation timing of the switching element and a voltage under resonating operation of the LC resonance circuit.

Claims

1. A switching power supply circuit of current resonance type comprising:

a switching element;

an LC resonance circuit to resonate current flowing through the switching element; and

a detection circuit to perform a detection associated with an output current amount of the switching power supply circuit;

wherein the detection circuit comprises;

an operation detection circuit to detect an operating timing of the switching element;

a voltage detection circuit to detect a voltage under resonating operation of the LC resonance circuit; and

a current value pulse generating circuit to generate a current value pulse, which becomes high during a time from when a detection signal of the operation detection circuit is output until a time when a detection signal of the voltage detection circuit is output, and to output the current value pulse as the output current amount.

2. The switching power supply circuit according to claim 1, wherein the current value pulse has a pulse width depending on a delay time of the resonating operation of the LC resonance circuit with respect to an ON-timing of the switching element.

3. The switching power supply circuit according to claim 1, wherein the current value pulse has a pulse width depending on a length of time between an ON-timing of the switching element and a time when a capacitor voltage of the LC resonance circuit reaches a predetermined voltage.

4. The switching power supply circuit according to claim 3, wherein a DC voltage is input to the switching power supply circuit, and the DC voltage is applied as the predetermined voltage.

5. The switching power supply circuit according to claim 1, wherein the LC resonance circuit comprises a resonant inductor connected in series to the switching element, and a resonant capacitor to be charged with current flowing through the resonant inductor.

6. The switching power supply circuit according to claim 1, further comprising a control circuit to control the operation of the switching element, wherein an output of the detection circuit is included in a feed-back signal of the control circuit.

7. The switching power supply circuit according to claim 6, wherein the control circuit changes an operating frequency of the switching element based on the output of the detection circuit.

8. The switching power supply circuit according to claim 6, wherein the control circuit controls the switching element in a current mode based on the output of the detection circuit.

9. The switching power supply circuit according to claim 1, further comprising an overcurrent protection circuit to protect the switching power supply circuit against overcurrent of the output current based on the output of the detection circuit.

10. The switching power supply circuit according to claim 1, further comprising a reactor to receive an input voltage by ON-operation of the switching element and to accumulate power, and a rectifying circuit to supply current to the reactor during OFF-period of the switching element, wherein output current is supplied by the power accumulated in the reactor.

11. A power supply device comprising:

a plurality of switching power supply circuits each according to claim 1, said switching power supply circuits being connected in parallel to one another; and

a control circuit to control operations of respective switching elements based on outputs of respective detection circuits so that output currents of said switching power supply circuits become uniform.