Fly-Buck Converter PCB Layout Tips

Fly-Buck converter PCB layout tips - Power House - Blogs - TI E2E Community
8/31/16, 7:49 AM
Fly-Buck converter PCB layout tips

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Synchronous buck converters have gained acceptance as isolated bias supplies in communications and industrial markets.
Isolated buck converters, or Fly-Buck converters as they are commonly called, have a coupled inductor in place of the buck
converter inductor which is used to create isolated outputs in addition to the non-isolated buck output. Each isolated output
only needs a winding, a rectifier diode, and an output capacitor. Multiple semi-regulated isolated, or non-isolated, outputs can
be generated using this topology in a simple and cost effective manner.
There are some key differences in the current flow in a buck and a Fly-Buck converter. The switching current loops in a buck
converter are well known and are shown in Figure 1. The input loop consisting of input bypass capacitor, VIN pin, high and low
side switch, and the ground return pin carries switching currents. This loop should be optimized with minimum trace lengths
and loop area for a quiet operation. The output loop consisting of low side switch, inductor, output capacitor and ground return
path carries essentially a DC current with low ripple. While it is important to keep all current flow paths small for low dc drops,
low losses, and low regulation error, the area of this loop is not as important as the input current loop.
http://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/b/powerhouse/archive/2014/04/01/flybuck-pcb-layout-tips?HQS=sva-null-null-pentonever-asset-e2e-null-wwe
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Figure 1. The current loops in a buck converter. VIN loop is a high di/dt loop.
The Fly-Buck converter primary side appears similar to the buck converter as shown in Figure 2. The VIN loop here is a high di/dt
loop just like in a buck converter. The VOUT1 loop however has very different current flow then in a buck converter. In addition to
the primary inductor magnetization current, this loop also has the reflected current from the secondary windings. The reflected
current has only the leakage inductance of the coupled inductor in its path and therefore has much higher di/dt than the
magnetization current of the inductor. It is therefore important to minimize the loop area of VOUT1 loop as well. For the same
reason, the secondary output loop consisting of secondary inductor winding, rectifier diode, and secondary output capacitor
also needs to be minimized because it has high di/dt current flowing through it.
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8/31/16, 7:49 AM
Figure 2. Fly-Buck converter has two high di/dt loops on the primary. All the secondary loops are high di/dt.
Another important point to remember when laying out a Fly-Buck converter is to realize that the secondary winding also has a
switch node. This secondary switch node (SW2) is high dv/dt node and has a voltage transition of VIN*N2/N1. It is customary
therefore to keep the SW2 trace area small to keep it from radiating noise.
A layout example incorporating the guidelines in this article is shown in Figure 3. The high di/dt loops on the primary and
secondary sides are minimized as are the switch node areas.
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Figure 3. A Fly-Buck layout based on LM5017 to minimize the di/dt loops and the high di/dt SW1,2 node areas.
Resources:
Read an application note: Designing an Isolated Buck (Fly-Buck) Converter
Watch a video: LM5017 Fly-Buck Multi-Output Demo
Find out more about TIs wide VIN products here
Read an article in How2Power: Synchronous Buck Converter Enables Multiple Bias Rails And Input Voltage Sensing For
Isolated Applications
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8/31/16, 7:49 AM
Chris Belting Vijay, I've been looking at the applications information for this topology and have a couple of
questions.
In a few of write-ups and the video, the inductor current is shown during the turn-off period as exponentially
rising in the secondaries and falling in the primary.
1. Can you explain the reason for this exponential shape?
2. How does the load current affect the shape?
In those related documents there is a discussion regarding the control method used and cautions that
certain types of control are not suitable but that the Constant On Time control implemented by the LM5017
is well suited to this topology.
3. Are there papers, books or application notes providing additional guidance or deriving the control-tooutput transfer function for this topology especially if one were to use peak current-mode control with for
example the LM21305?
Thanks
Vijay Choudhary86929 Hi Chris,
#1 Please refer to application note "Designing an isolated buck (Fly-Buck) Converter" for this waveform. In
short, during the off time "TOFF" the primary and secondary output capacitors are connected through the
leakage impedance of the transformer. This results in a LC charging current from COUT1 to COUT2. This
current is superimposed on the primary buck current. That is what looks like the LC current. If the leakage is
small enough, the current will ultimately start decreasing and the IL1 waveform will turn back towards zero
(from a negative value).
#2 The higher the load current the higher the LC charging current (COUT1 to COUT2). Accordingly the IL1
current will look steeper and will go more negative.
#3 We have analyzed Fly-Buck mostly with COTs. My main point was that because COTs are easier to design
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than voltage or current mode parts from a stability point of view, their is no significant change is the design
process between a buck and a flybuck. Unfortunately at this point I don't have any document that explains
the transfer function of a Fly-Buck.
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Fly-Buck converter PCB layout tips - Power House - Blogs - TI E2E Community

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