A rectifier apparatus and a method for operating arectifier apparatus

Abstract

A synchronous rectifier using current driven approach is disclosed which can replace diode rectifier in most of the power converter topologies to enable low rectification loss. The present invention comprises a low loss switch and essentially a transformer with at lease one current sensing winding, windings for current sense energy recovery and one driving winding connected to a hysterisis driver which provides driving signal and power for the synchronous rectifier. A hystersis driver is introduced which can reduce the noise interference to the driving signal, increase the operating frequency range, eliminate the saturation problem of the current sensing transformer and hence provide more flexibility to the transformer design. This synchronous rectifier is self-driven and the driving signal is independent of the input voltage of the converter which enhances its application to wide input range converter. Current sense energy recovery enables power converters to operate at high efficiency and high frequency.