Turn Your Power Supplys Power Limit into Current Limit

Through simple circuit modifications, designers can use peak current limiting to
produce a constant current source.
Fault protection is a critical function of all power supply controllers. Nearly all
applications require some kind of over-load protection. For peak current-mode
controllers this is easily accomplished by limiting the maximum peak current. In a
discontinuous flyback, placing a limit on the peak current ultimately limits the
power that the supply can draw from the input source.
However, limiting the input power does not limit the output current of a supply.
When the input power is held constant in an overload fault, as the output voltage
drops, the output current rises (P=V*I). In the event of a short circuit, this can
place unacceptably high losses in output rectifiers or system power distribution.
With a little creativity and a few extra components, this article shows you how a
simple peak current limit can be modified to turn the power supply into a
constant current source, rather than a constant power source.

Fig. 1 shows the ideal output voltage versus current for both constant power and
current limits. In both cases, the overload fault protection is set to occur at 120
percent of the maximum rated load. In a system with power limit, the output
current rises as the inverse of the voltage as the load is increased. In a real
system, the flyback controller with power limit may shut off at some point due
to loss of bias voltage on the controller. By comparison, the system with current
limit immediately shuts down once the overload threshold has been crossed.
Current limit can be accomplished by directly sensing the load current on the
secondary side of the isolation boundary. However, doing so requires significantly
more circuitry, degrades efficiency, and is usually cost prohibitive.

Fig. 2 displays the schematic of a 5V/5W discontinuous flyback power supply used
in a charger for mobile devices. In our example, we used the UCC28C44
controller, which is typical of most economy peak-current mode controllers and
implements a power limit function. In a discontinuous flyback, neglecting the
effect of efficiency, the power delivered to the load (P) is given by Equation 1.

P = Vout * Iout = * L* Ipk * f ------------> 1

Because both the transformer inductance (L) and switching frequency (f) are
fixed, the output voltage (VOUT) is regulated by controlling the peak primary
current (IPK). As the output current (IOUT) is increased, the voltage begins to
decrease, but the feedback loop demands a higher peak current to maintain
voltage regulation.
Inside the flyback converter, the feedback voltage on pin 1 (COMP) is compared
to the peak current, which is sensed by R15 and filtered by R13 and C12. A
separate over-current comparator terminates a pulse, if the current sense voltage
ever reaches 1V. This limitation of peak current is how the power limit is realized
in most pulse-width modulation (PWM) controllers. With the power held constant,
Equation 1 can be rearranged as shown in Equation 2. In this equation, it is
easy to see mathematically how the output current is inversely proportional to the
output voltage during power limit.

Iout = L* Ipk * f / 2* Vout ------------------------> 2

Some controllers also contain a second comparator that is tripped by peak
currents that are higher than the first level comparator. This second level
comparator triggers a complete shutdown of the controller and initiates a restart
cycle. This extra level of protection is designed to catch catastrophic failures
within the power supply itself, for example, a shorted transformer winding or
shorted output diode. But most situations that involve shorted loads typically
never cross this threshold.

Fig. 3 shows the output and bias voltages versus load current for the circuit in
Fig. 2. The output V -I characteristics very closely follow the ideal case shown in
Fig. 1. Power limit is incepted when the load current reaches approximately 1.3A.
As the load increases, the output voltage begins to fall. Because the bias voltage
is a reflection of the output voltage, it also begins to fall. The PWM controller
shuts off when the bias voltage drops below the turn-off level of 9V.
In this example, although the peak current limit is engaged when the load
exceeds 1.3A, the load current can be more than twice the rated load before the
converter shuts off. This may be unacceptable in some applications. Instead, a
more square-shaped V-I curve is desirable. This can be accomplished very easily
by leveraging the fact that the bias voltage decreases as the load increases past
the power limit point. By adding a few components, the decreasing bias voltage
can be used to fold back the switching frequency during power limit. By doing so,
the switching is forced to be proportional to the output voltage, as shown in
Equation 3. Substituting Equation 3 into Equation 2 reveals that, theoretically, the
output current is no longer dependent on the output voltage during power limit,
see Equation 4.

f Vout ----------------------------------------------> 3
I L* Ipk / 2 ----------------------------------------> 4

The components added to create this improved current limit are highlighted in the
schematic shown in Fig. 4. The switching frequency of the flyback converter is set
by R10, R8, and C11, which program the internal oscillator. An internal 5V source
charges C11 through R10 and R8. As the bias voltage falls, the resistor divider of
R7 and R11 turns on Q1 and over-rides the internal 5V source, decreasing the
switching frequency. The bias diode (D4) must now be a dual, seriesconnected
diode, so that R7 and R11 do not divert current from the controller during
startup. The values of R7 and R11 are selected so that Q1 is off during normal
operation, and only turns on when the bias voltage has dropped below
approximately 12V.

The results of adding these components are shown in Fig. 5. Just as before, both
the output and bias voltages begin to drop as the supply enters power limit. Once
the bias voltage has dropped low enough to begin to turn on Q1, any further
increase in load current causes the switching frequency to decrease, which in turn
decreases the available power to the load. This accelerates the over current shut
down process. Notice that there is still some correlation between the output
current and output voltage. This is due to coupling of the bias winding inside the

transformer and limited gain of Q1. Despite these imperfections, the V-I
characteristics are sharply improved with the added circuit. In fact, now the
supply will not provide more than 1.5A into a faulted load. In summary, power
supplies that provide power limit protection can still source large amounts of
current into an over-loaded output. As shown here, implementing a precise
current limit can be done easily and inexpensively just by adding a few
components around the primary-side controller. Although presented for a flyback
converter, this scheme can also reduce the current tailing seen in buck-derived
converters.