The death of transformers? AC Direct DC Enabler is a solid-state solution for AC-DC power supplies

[–] [deleted] • 2 pts

So what is this?. A bridge rectifier with a buck dc/dc down converter on a single die?

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[–] • 1 pt

(edited )

there's no info on how it's done, but rectification doesn't seem to be the way. All I could find on their site was this:

By eliminating the conventional process of transforming and rectifying the AC sine wave ...

"We discovered a way the physics of electricity can be managed digitally through silicon chips, which changes everything for how all electrical products and even silicon chip solutions are designed," Casey added. "Digitizing the AC sinewave is a profound breakthrough for building products because we can now use software and algorithms in a silicon chip to control every aspect of electricity"

Wonder what they're doing with the heat

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[–] [deleted] • 1 pt

You could probably rectify with a set of transistors rather than diodes given you can measure or predict where in the sine wave the current instant is but like you said its going to be low power or you will have to deal with the heat.

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[–] • 0 pt

(edited )

Where's the inductor? I don't think they can fit on piece of silicon.

Plus this will have no isolation from mains. Enjoy your death USB charger when the silicon melts over from a power surge.

Maybe it's the reverse of a flying capacitor supply. Connect a bunch of capacitors in series to the line, then connect them in parallel for the output. They could reconfigure them during the changing waveform (more in parallel as the sine wave voltage gets lower, hence their "digitization" comment.

Most likely, it's garbage or just a niche thing for micro-power IoT devices.

I found using the inductorless switching supply.

The SR086/SR087 are inductorless switching regulators designed to operate directly from a rectified AC line. The operating principle is to turn on a pass transistor when the rectified AC is below the output voltage and to turn it off when the output voltage reaches a specific level. The ICs feature an adjustable main output voltage of 9V to 50V and an additional fixed output of 3.3V for SR086 and 5V for SR087. Efficiencies of around 55% may be realized for loads up to 1W in 120 VAC applications and about 50% efficiencies for loads up to 800 mW in 230 VAC applications.

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[–] • 1 pt

Output power – 0.2W to 15W

Dynamic input voltage – 50V to 480V

On-demand output voltage 3.3V, 5V, 12V, or anything in between

Highest power density at 5W per cubic inch

Short circuit, over-voltage, and thermal protection

UL safety certifications

So Amber can take an AC supply rated up to 480V as input power and gain a UL safety certification when there is no significant hi-side, low-side separation going on? Sure the proposed SOIC package has some missing pins which I assume is there for hi-side, low-side separation, but the pin pitch is small enough that I would not want to use that if the AC supply exceeds 100VAC. There needs to be better safety considerations for this to be any better than a simple capacitive dropper circuit. Linear power supplies may require bulky and expensive transformers, but they have the best hi-side, low-side isolation and built in current limiting should things go wrong with a stray finger/hand or other fault that sends HV AC to the output.

Also, 15W output power isn't much, but they don't say what the efficiency of the setup is. What is the TDP of this setup and later SOIC package? How much thermal consideration will consumer designs need when operating at max power output? Who cares if they shrink it to a 10x20mm package if you have to attach a 30W TDP heatsink to it to maintain operational specs. And what about the quality characteristics of the DC output? What kind of DC filtering will be needed? What is the ripple like? Are there drop out modes and does it provide any over-voltage/over-current protection? Reverse current? Thermal cutoff? Voltage stability over a range of current draws? Transient voltage/current spike isolation? Power factor? So many important technical questions need to be answered here before I would consider this as a replacement for a SMPS or linear PS. The IoT aspects of this only make it less desirable since we don't need anymore back doors into or consumer electronics than we already have.

>* Output power – 0.2W to 15W >* Dynamic input voltage – 50V to 480V >* On-demand output voltage 3.3V, 5V, 12V, or anything in between >* Highest power density at 5W per cubic inch >* Short circuit, over-voltage, and thermal protection >* UL safety certifications So Amber can take an AC supply rated up to 480V as input power and gain a UL safety certification when there is no significant hi-side, low-side separation going on? Sure the proposed SOIC package has some missing pins which I assume is there for hi-side, low-side separation, but the pin pitch is small enough that I would not want to use that if the AC supply exceeds 100VAC. There needs to be better safety considerations for this to be any better than a simple capacitive dropper circuit. Linear power supplies may require bulky and expensive transformers, but they have the best hi-side, low-side isolation and built in current limiting should things go wrong with a stray finger/hand or other fault that sends HV AC to the output. Also, 15W output power isn't much, but they don't say what the efficiency of the setup is. What is the TDP of this setup and later SOIC package? How much thermal consideration will consumer designs need when operating at max power output? Who cares if they shrink it to a 10x20mm package if you have to attach a 30W TDP heatsink to it to maintain operational specs. And what about the quality characteristics of the DC output? What kind of DC filtering will be needed? What is the ripple like? Are there drop out modes and does it provide any over-voltage/over-current protection? Reverse current? Thermal cutoff? Voltage stability over a range of current draws? Transient voltage/current spike isolation? Power factor? So many important technical questions need to be answered here before I would consider this as a replacement for a SMPS or linear PS. The IoT aspects of this only make it less desirable since we don't need anymore back doors into or consumer electronics than we already have.

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[–] • 0 pt

They're targeting simple device chargers initially. Can't even quick charge a phone or tablet with 15W. I anticipate them being acquired by TI or another entity and having the patent applied to something better.

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[–] [deleted] • 0 pt

Power supplies would typically transform AC mains to DC voltage with the use of transformers, rectifiers, or filtering, but Amber Solutions’ AC Direct DC Enabler chip claims to do without those old tech electromechanical components by enabling DC extraction directly from AC mains through solid-state architecture.

Transformers and rectifiers aren't solid state? Wut?