TI introduces Power Factor Correction (PFC) & Digital Power Workshop kits

Digital power designs are now even easier with two new development kits from Texas Instruments (TI). The TI C2000 microcontroller (MCU) Interleaved Power Factor Correction (PFC) Kit offers best-in-class efficiency, power factor (PF) and total harmonic distortion (THD) performance, supporting advanced power metering functions and alternating current (AC) lines.

Also, the first of its kind, providing complete training materials, the Digital Power Workshop Kit provides a robust, low-voltage, safe training environment, targeted for power supply engineers seeking to easily transition from analog power design to digital modes.  

Each of the digital power kits contains complementary analog components, such as amplifiers, isolators, secondary power devices, linear regulators and MOSFET drivers. These components are test to work with the C2000 MCU devices in a digital power system, yielding a complete system kit for design needs.

Interleaved PFC Kit features and benefits:

• Industry’s highest performance, digitally driven PFC platform developed for industrial and power conversion platforms. The PFC kit has a working voltage of 120/220, voltage alternating current (VAC) input to a 400 voltage direct current (VDC) output board and supports up to 500W. Designers can enable higher performance in server, telecom rectifiers and other advanced power supplies facing stringent efficiency guidelines.  
• Enables a variety of functions with low-cost C2000 Piccolo MCUs. Designers seeking to add PFC, THD and efficiency can also add real-time, advanced power metering on AC lines all from the kit based on a single low-cost C2000 MCU, eliminating the need for external components.
• Provides the ability scale to a variety of C2000 Piccolo MCUs.  Designers can use any of the C2000 Piccolo MCUs for PFC applications, so this kit gives these designers a high-end platform with which they can experiment.
• Accompanied with free software and schematics to ease design and double performance.  The PFC kit comes with TI software and schematics for advanced PFC control, as well as modular software for metering functions. These software libraries help designers easily use the Piccolo MCU’s Control Law Accelerator (CLA) to free up the MCU’s main C2000 CPU to double performance and enable system host functions.

Digital Power Workshop Kit features and benefits:

• Safely explore digital power design.  A low-voltage desktop training environment allows the novice designer to explore digital designs. The kit’s board is also isolated to prevent any damage to the personal computer.
• Easily transition from analog power supply design to digital. The kit’s is based on TI’s in-person training session and includes a self-paced training module that begins with the fundamentals of digital power and helps the designer migrate to advanced designs.
• Supports multiple digital power control topologies and techniques.  This includes voltage mode control, average current mode control and peak current mode control.  Other topics include closing the control loop in the digital domain, tuning for efficiency and more.
• Based on the C2000 Piccolo™ MCU, the kit offers real-time performance.  With on-chip analog and the Control Law Accelerator (CLA), digital power designers can utilize the CLA and software to double the amount of power for digital designs.
• Digital power software is available.  The complementary, multi-segmented training course includes how to use the digital power library from TI, developed specifically for the C2000 devices.  This training is available for the Piccolo MCU’s CLA advanced functions, helping designers learn how to double the amount of processing power for digital power applications on a low-cost MCU platform.

TI will demonstrate the these kits in its booth #109 at the Applied Power Electronics Conference and Expo (APEC) in Long Beach, Calif., Mar. 18-20.

Pricing and availability
Both of the new digital power kits can be obtained through the TI estore and TI-authorized distributors.  The Interleaved PFC Kit is available for $299, and the Digital Power Workshop Kit is available for $399.  You can learn more by visiting www.ti.com/c2x-dp-kits-pr-lp2
 

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