Increase Boost Regulator Efficiency With Synchronous Rectification

by Bob Bell and Kim Nielson, National Semiconductor, Phoenix, Ariz., How2Power Today, Jan 26 2010

Focus:
Though more commonly used in buck converters, synchronous rectification techniques can also be applied to enhance the efficiency of boost converters. After a brief review of boost converter operation, this article presents a design example of a converter based on the LM5025 voltage-mode PWM controller. This design steps up a 12-V input to a 24-V 6-A output. A prototype of this converter is built and its efficiency is measured in two configurations-with synchronous and nonsynchronous rectification. The article discusses these results and notes factors such as boost ratio, gate-drive loss, and dead time, which influence the efficiency of synchronous boost converters.

What you’ll learn:

• How to improve boost converter efficiency using synchronous rectification
• How to build a 12-V input, 24-V output nonisolated synchronous boost converter

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