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Product Overview
PFC Controller Step-by-Step Selection Guide
From consumer electronics gadgets like laptop to industrial equipment like robotics, anything powered from
the AC grid represents a complex load condition and can behave more than just a pure resistor. If the load
impedance includes an inductive or capacitive part, the input current is no longer in phase with the instantaneous
line voltage, as shown in Figure 1. If the load only takes DC input and diode bridge + input cap is used to provide
the DC input, the current will only be conducting when the AC voltage exceeds the DC voltage on the capacitor
and the waveform is shown in Figure 2. Both cases incur apparent power transferred between the load and the
supply, which demands higher peak power from the grid and wastes energy through the transmission line.
Figure 1. Input Voltage and Current Waveform for Figure 2. Input Voltage and Current Waveform For
an Inductive Load Diode Bridge Rectification
Therefore, a power factor correction (PFC) circuit between the load and the grid is needed to shapes the input
current to be in phase with the instantaneous AC line voltage to minimizes the energy loss. The PFC function
can be achieved through either passive or active means. A passive PFC circuit is comprised with only capacitors
and inductors, which can be affordable and simple for certain scenarios, but it is challenging to achieve greater
than 0.9 PF value across wide operating conditions. In contrast, a modern active PFC circuit can easily achieve
PF value > 0.99 with efficiency greater than 97%.
TI offers variety of PFC solutions and the most common topology is the boost, as shown in Figure 3. The PFC
stage resides between the DC/DC and rectified AC line. Because the boost inductor inherently limits the dI/dt of
the input current, it makes the topology better equipped to achieve low input current distortion.
Load
Isolated
DC/DC
PFC Load
Point of
Load
Figure 3. A Common AC/DC Power Supply Block Diagram
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The boost PFC has three operation modes based on the inductor current waveform shape: Discontinuous
Conduction Mode (DCM), Critical Conduction Mode (CrCM) and Continuous Conduction Mode (CCM). The
CrCM is also referred as Transition Mode (TM) in some literature. The inductor current waveform is show in
Figure 4 for each mode. One key distinction of DCM and CrCM is that the current always reaches to zero in each
switching cycle, where it doesn’t in CCM.
Figure 4. Inductor Current Waveform for DCM Figure 5. Inductor Current Waveform for CrCM
Operation Operation
Figure 6. Inductor Current Waveform for CCM Operation
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Table 1 highlights the pro and con of each operation mode. In short, DCM/CrCM is more suitable for low power
applications and CCM is more suitable for high power applications. Nowadays, CrCM is more popular than just
DCM controller because CrCM can deliver more power and the design complexity can be easily addressed by
sophisticated IPs with little cost adder. Therefore, this guidebook will focus on CrCM and CCM controllers.
Table 1. Comparison Between Different Operation Modes
Mode Key Distinctions Pro Con
DCM • Zero current switching (ZCS) • Higher efficiency at light load (no • Worst iTHD (Total Harmonic
• Typically, fixed freq with pulse diode reverse recovery) Distortion) among all
width modulation • Simple IC design and lowest cost • Highest conduction loss at the
same output power level
CrCM • Zero current switching (ZCS) • Higher efficiency at light load (no • Variable frequency design so more
• Typically, variable freq with fixed diode reverse recovery) complex than DCM
Ton time • Higher efficiency than DCM • iTHD is worse than CCM
CCM • Current valley > zero • Best iTHD compared to CrCM and • Require expensive fast recovery
• Typically, fixed freq with pulse CCM diode (Schottky/SiC)
width modulation • More efficient at higher power • More difficult to design and
application compensate
• Need smaller inductor at the same • Light load efficiency is lower
power level
If more power is needed, a practical approach is to interleave two boost power stages that are operated 180° out
of phase from each other as shown below. Figure 7 shows the typical diagram and Figure 8 shows the current
waveform for each inductor and the total current seen at the load. In addition to the extended power range, the
total ripple current can be significantly reduced by cancellation of two interleaved stages, achieving better iTHD.
IL1
Iln
IL2
Figure 7. Example Diagram of an Interleaved Boost Figure 8. Inductor Current (Two Blue) and Total
PFC Current (Red) Waveform
While interleaved CrCM and single phase CCM both can be used in the 300 W to 600 W output power range.
Table 2 show the key differences.
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Table 2. Comparison Between Interleaved CrCM and Single Phase CCM
Design Characteristics Interleaved CrCM Single Phase CCM
Component Stress Valley switched, less stressful to the power FET Hard switched, more stressful to the power FET
Power Density Lower Higher
System Height Smaller (for example, more suitable for slim TV Higher
design)
Thermal Management Easier due to spread over larger space More challenging in a concentrated area
System Cost More component counts, but less expensive per Fewer component counts, but more expensive per
component component
TI offers PFC controllers across power range from 75 W all the way to several thousand watts, as shown in
Figure 9. In the power range where multiple parts overlap, careful review of the system requirement is needed to
provide the best recommendation.
Figure 9. Controller Selection Table by the System Power Requirement
For example, in the interleaved CrCM PFC controller family, while UCC28065 offers consistent low iTHD across
frequency and inductor value range, UCC28064A offers superior iTHD performance at low switching frequency
range, as shown in the Figure 10. Therefore, UCC28065 is more suitable for system that requires smaller form
factor design, such as slim TV, while UCC28064A is more suitable for system seeking absolute low iTHD, such
as lighting.
Figure 10. iTHD Performance at Low Line, Across Figure 11. iTHD Performance at High Line, Across
Different Inductor Value and Switching Frequency Different Inductor Value and Switching Frequency
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Take the single phase CCM PFC family as another example, the feature of programmable switching frequency
enables UCC28180 to match with wide variety of power FET, whether it is Si, IGBT, or GaN/SiC. The built-in
brown-out protection feature makes UCC28019A more popular in safety critical applications such as server PSU.
Table 3 shows the high-level summary of standalone PFC controllers that TI offers. For more product
information, please visit the Power Factor Correction controllers homepage.
Table 3. High-Level Summary of Standalone PFC Controllers
GPN Operation Phase Soft Open Loop Output Brownout Over Temp Ext Clock Noise Idle Current Switching Package
Mode Current Detection Under Protection Protection Sync Reduction Frequency
Limit Voltage
Protection
UCC28056 CrCM Single Yes Yes Yes <45uA 54kHz SOT23-6
UCC28064A CrCM Interleaved Yes Yes Yes Yes <200uA 400kHz SOIC-16
UCC28065 CrCM Interleaved Yes Yes Yes Yes <200uA 800kHz SOIC-16
UCC28019A CCM Single Yes Yes Yes <200uA 65kHz SOIC-8
UCC28180 CCM Single Yes Yes Yes <75uA 18-150kHz SOIC-8
UCC28070A CCM Interleaved Yes Yes Yes Yes <200uA 30-300kHz SOIC/
SOP-20
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