Application Note

SLUA253 - January 2001

Accurate PWM Duty Cycle Clamp

Michael O’Loughlin System Power

ABSTRACT
Power supply applications using current sense transformers require a duty cycle clamp on
the pulse width modulator (PWM) to ensure transformer reset. Not all PWMs come with a duty
cycle clamp, presenting a problem for the power supply designer. This application note shows
how to implement a duty cycle clamp by using a simple delay circuit.

Contents
1 Duty Cycle Clamp Circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Theory of Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1 Duty Cycle Clamp Circuit

The circuit in Figure 1 can be used affectively to clamp the maximum duty cycle of PWM
controller. It is a simple delay circuit that consists of ten passive components, a diode, LM311
comparator and a MOSFET driver. Note there are two holdup/bypass capacitors for the UC3705
and the LM311 that are not shown in Figure 1.
RSENSE

10 kΩ
UCC3818

DRVOUT 16
FIXED 12–V SUPPLY
R1 CT
8.25 kΩ

R3
3 kΩ R4 8 5 6 R7
10 kΩ 750 kΩ
5 1
3
N.I. IN VO
C1 7
180 pF + 4 INV. IN OUT 2
2
R2 GND
3.57 kΩ LM311 UC3705T
R5 4 1 3
1.62 kΩ

R6
10 kΩ
UDG–01060

Figure 1. Maximum Duty Cycle Clamp Application

1
SLUA253

2 Theory of Operation
When the gate drive of the UCC3818 transitions from low to high resistors R1, R2 and capacitor
C1 form a timing delay to the LM311 comparator. When the threshold voltage of the comparator
is reached, it activates the UC3705 MOSFET driver. Resistors R4, R5, R6 and R7 along with the
LM311 form a hysteretic comparator that is required for circuit stability. Resistor R3 and diode
D1 provide a fast discharge path for C1 during circuit reset, which occurs when the gate drive
goes low.

2.1 Design Example

Resistors R1 and R2 attenuate the gate drive signal. Diode D1 and resistor R3 speed up the
turn off of the comparator. The following equations can be used to calculate the size of R2 and
R3. VRPEAK is the peak ramp voltage, which is selected to be 3.6 V. VGATE is the maximum gate
drive voltage of the UCC3818, which is approximately 12 V for this design. VD is the forward
diode drop of D1 and IGATE(max) is the maximum gate drive current that the PWM controller can
sink. For this design the IGATE(max) is 1.2 A and the diode used is a 1N4148, which has a forward
voltage drop of 0.7 V. R1 is selected to be a standard 8.25 kΩ resistor, giving R2 a value of
roughly 3.57 kΩ.
V RPEAK V * VD
R2 + R1 [ 3.57 kW , R3 + RPEAK [ 3W (1)
V GATE * V RPEAK I GATE(max)

Equation (2) is used to set up the LM311 comparator, where VFIXED_SUPPLY is the supply voltage
to the comparator and VTRIP is the comparator trip voltage. For this design example VTRIP was
selected to be 3 V and R6 was selected to be 10 kΩ. Note for this equation to hold true R4 must
be set to the same value as R6.

R5 + 1 V TRIP R6 [ 1.62 kW (2)

2 V FIXED_SUPPLY * V TRIP

After the components are selected, it is a good idea to check the hysteresis level to ensure the
comparator will turn on and off correctly. Equation (3) can be used to calculate the hysteresis
(VHYST) of this design example. For this design example, the hysteresis is approximately 1.5 V.

V FIXED_SUPPLY ǒR5 R6Ǔ

R5)R6
V HYST + [ 1.5 V (3)
R4 ) ǒR5 R6Ǔ
R5)R6

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 SLUA253

After the comparator has been set up, component C1 can be selected using equations (4) and
(5), where tDELAY is the turn on delays of the LM311 and UC3705 less the turn off delays of the
comparator and MOSFET driver, tDELAY is roughly 100 ns. Variable DMAX is the maximum duty
cycle and fs is the PWM’s switching frequency. For this design example DMAX is set to 0.9 and
the switching frequency was selected to be 100 kHz.

t + ǒ1 * D MAXǓ fs * t DELAY + 900 ms, (4)

*t

ȱ V TRIP ȳ
ȧ
ln ȧ
V GATE ǒ R2 Ǔ
1*
(5)
Ȳ R1)R2 ȴ
C1 + [ 220 pF
R1 R2
R1)R2
Figure 2 shows that the duty cycle was clamped to roughly 90%. Channel 2 is the gate drive of
the UCC3818. Channel 1 is the output of the UC3705 gate driver. Channel 3 is the voltage at the
inverting input of the LM311 comparator and Channel 4 is the voltage at the non-inverting input
of the comparator.

UCC3818 Gate Drive Output

10 V / Div

UC3705 Gate Drive Output

10 V / Div

LM311 Inverting Input

5 V / Div

LM311 Inverting Input

5 V / Div

2 µs / Div

Figure 2. Clamping Waveforms

A duty cycle clamp on the PWM is required to reset a current transformer used in power supply
applications. If the PWM used in the design does not have a duty cycle clamp, such as the
UCC3818, additional circuitry will be required. This design example shows the duty clamp being
implemented with delay circuit and MOSFET driver.

Accurate PWM Duty Cycle Clamp 3

SLUA253

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4 Accurate PWM Duty Cycle Clamp