Future Electronics has introduced ‘Power-Star’ – a complete AC-DC power supply reference board aimed at equipment that must comply with new stringent power efficiency regulations. The AC-DC Power Supply proof-of-concept development board implements advanced technologies at the power factor correction (PFC), conversion and rectification stages to achieve system-level efficiency of more than 94% under a wide range of load conditions.

The configurable board means that designers can implement a working, efficient power supply for prototypes that consume between 100W and 1kW. While evaluation boards separately for the PFC, conversion and rectification stages of a power supply are widely available from power IC manufacturers, Future implements all three stages in one board.

The board uses techniques to minimise power losses at every stage of the power conditioning process. A dual-interleaved Boundary Conduction Mode (BCM) front end control IC, the Fairchild Semiconductor FAN9611, implements the required power factor correction functions. LLC resonant converters are the most efficient technique for down-converting power supplies in the 12V-48V range; the Future Electronics board uses a Fairchild FAN7621 LLC resonant conversion controller.

In the secondary circuit, synchronous rectification is being adopted in more and more designs because it offers a large reduction in power losses compared to conventional Schottky diode rectification. The Future Electronics board uses a new synchronous rectification controller from Fairchild, the FAN6208.

Future Electronics provides developers with a design tool for selecting values for peripheral components in order to optimise the board for supply voltages between 12V and 96V, and for peak power consumption ranging from 100W to 1kW. As for every other Future Electronics proof-of-concept development board, the Gerber design files for the ‘Power-Star’ AC-DC Power Supply Board are available to users.

The board is available free to qualifying customers of Future Electronics.