As we get ready to celebrate Halloween at the end of the week - a few of our engineers put together circuit diagrams that may or may not cause a fellow engineer fright if it were to be designed in. Over the course of the week we'll post these circuits and let us know what you think in the comments! We'll post each answer at the end of the day.
First up, this 2-switch flyback converter is designed to deliver 12 V from a 100-V input. Horatius, the bold designer, believes it will work. Do you agree?
Answer: The converter is electrically sound, meaning that applying the power won’t lead to a catastrophic failure. However, the output voltage will be clamped to 10 V, not 12 V as Horatius presumptuously expected. The reason lies in the transformer turns ratio of 10. When the two switches simultaneously open, the output voltage is reflected to the primary side via the transformer. However, the reflected voltage cannot exceed a level imposed by the input voltage and the two clamping diodes. As the input source is 100 V, the reflected voltage excursion will be blocked to roughly 100 V (neglecting the diodes forward drops) which, after a turns ratio of 10, implies an output voltage of 10 V.