TIDUEM7A April 2019 – February 2021
The TPS7A78 device improves the overall efficiency and standby power in power supplies for an easy-to-use non-magnetic approach to AC/DC conversion. The TPS7A78 device uses an external capacitor to create a current source and actively clamps the rectified voltage. The device then regulates the voltage down to the application-specific operating voltage. The unique architecture of the device allows the standby power to be reduced from several 100s of milliwatts to just a few 10s of milliwatts. The TPS7A78 device takes advantage of an innovative switched capacitor stage to reduce the clamped voltage down by approximately 1/4th of the value, which in turn multiplies the current by 4. Thus, the current source capacitor can be much smaller in size, which minimizes standby power, reduces solution size, and can lead to a lower system cost.
The TPS7A78 device is optimized for electricity meters where the power supply must be reliable and magnetic tamper-proof. The TPS7A78 device requires no external magnetics, which makes complying with IEC 61000-4-8 and any magnetic tampering tests easier while minimizing costly magnetic shielding.
Additionally, the TPS7A78 also comes with a user programmable power-fail detection threshold that can provide an early alert to AC supply failures so the system can save data before losing main power and then enter a low-power mode before switching to a backup power supply. A power-good indication on the TPS7A78 can be used to alert the system that power has returned so that the system could exit low power mode and resume normal operation.