The STNRG digital-controller family, new from STMicroelectronics, helps designers maximize the advantages of digital power conversion, including high efficiency under all load conditions, enhanced safety, rich diagnostics, and convenient network connectivity. Rugged enough for high-end industrial applications as well as outdoor equipment such as solar-power converters, EV charging stations, and industrial switched-mode power supplies, the STNRG ICs contain ST’s unique State Machine Event Driven (SMED) high-resolution pulse-width modulation generator, in combination with an STM8-based supervisory core. The new devices integrate 32KB EEPROM, 6KB RAM, an ADC, op-amp, I2C port, and GPIOs. ST’s STNRG digital-controller family will be shown at the PCIM trade show (Booth 551/Hall 9) in Nuremberg, Germany, on May 19-21 2015.
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Configuring the SMED requires no specialist software competencies, unlike the usual DSP or microcontroller-based approach. The SMED can be triggered from the internal timer or an external event such as peak current, over current, or zero crossing. This allows a peak-current detecting buck converter, with constant off time set by the timer, to operate without intervention by the core processor. A simple P-I (proportional-integral) loop executed in the core sets the peak-current value for output regulation.
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