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with Ferroxcube
gapped toroid output filter
Class D audio amplifier with Ferroxcube
gapped toroid output filter
The concept of a Class D amplifier has input signal shape but with larger bridge configuration. Each topology
been around for a long time, however amplitude. And audio amplifier is spe- has pros and cons. In brief, a half bridge
only fairly recently have they become cially design for reproducing audio fre- is potentially simpler, while a full bridge
commonly used in consumer applica- quencies. is better in audio performance.The full
tions. Due to improvements in the bridge topology requires two half-
speed, power capacity and efficiency of Amplifier circuits are classified as A, B, bridge amplifiers, and thus more com-
modern semiconductor devices, appli- AB and C for analog designs, and class ponents.
cations using Class D amplifiers have D and E for switching devices. For the
become affordable for the common analog classes, each type defines which A Class D amplifier works in the same
person.The mainly benefit of this kind proportion of the input signal cycle is way as a PWM power supply, except
of amplifier is the efficiency, the theo- used to switch on the amplifying device: that the reference signal is the audio
retical maximum efficiency of a class D Class A 100% wave instead of the accurate voltage
design is 100%, and over 90% is Class AB Between 50% and 100% reference.
achieve in practice. Class B 50%
Class C less than 50% Lets start with an assumption that the
Other benefits of these amplifiers are input signal is a standard audio line level
the reduction in consumption, their The letter D used to designate the class signal.This audio line level signal is sinu-
smaller size and the lower weight. D amplifier, is simply the next letter soidal with a frequency ranging from 20
Their advantages are obvious in low after the C, and does not stand for dig- Hz to 20Khz. This signal is compared
power battery operated personal ital. Class D and E are sometimes mis- with a high frequency triangle or saw-
audio players and laptop computer. takenly defined as digital because the tooth waveform to create the PWM
However they are also progressively output waveform superficially resem- signal.The input signal is converted to a
displacing more traditional linear bles a pulse train of digital symbols. sequence of pulses whose averaged
designs in mainstream applications value is directly proportional to the
such as home entertainment systems, amplitude of the signal at that time.The
automotive sound systems, and pro- Class D amplifiers frequency of the pulses is typically ten
fessional installations where high qual- or more times the highest frequency of
ity audio is important. A class D amplifier is basically a interest in the input signal.
switching amplifier or pulse width
modulator (PWM from now on) This PWM signal is then used to drive
Audio Amplifiers amplifier. In this kind of amplifier all the power stage, creating the amplified
power devices are operated in on/off digital signal, and finally a low pass filter
An electronic amplifier is a device for mode, reducing the power losses in is applied to the signal to filter out the
increasing the current, voltage or the output devices significantly. PWM carrier frequency and retrieve
power of a signal. It does this, by tak- the sinusoidal audio signal. The result-
ing power from a power supply and Class D amplifiers can be categorised ing filtered signal is then an amplified
controlling the output to match the into two topologies; half bridge and full replica of the input.
Figure 1: Block diagram of a Class D audio amplifier
0 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 1 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 10
A second order LC filter is the com- sated for by means of proper feedback Magnetic core
mon approach, as it is lossless and has network design. Some manufacturers of the output filter
a 40dB/decade slope, allowing for a simply leave it that way, so the
reasonable rejection of the carrier if response is strongly dependent on the The linearity of the filter versus fre-
the parameters of the filter and the load. Surely a non-desirable situation. quency and output power strongly
switching frequency itself are properly influences the performance of the
designed. More information about designing the amplifier and quality of the audio sig-
output filter as a function of the cut off nal. Therefore, care has to be taken in
frequency and load impedance is pre- order to select the optimal magnetic
sented in annex 2. core at a reasonable cost.
The output inductor withstands the Iron powder cores are the cheapest
whole output current without satura- solution, but the switching frequency
tion, as well as keeps the energy for (several hundred kilohertz) is too high
the off cycle, as in any non-isolated to make them suitable for this applica-
switching converter (Class-D half tion.
Figure 3: Second order low pass filter structu- bridge design is in fact analogous to a
re.
buck converter, its reference voltage Powder alloy cores are widely used,
being the audio signal). mainly because they are very popular
as output chokes in DC/DC convert-
The first thing to do is to design the The ideal inductor (in terms of linear- ers and SMPS.The drawback is that the
transfer function for the filter. Usually, ity) is an air-core one, but the size and saturation curve is not flat, but with a
a Butterworth or similar frequency number of turns required for typical constant slope drop.To overcome this
response is chosen, with a cut-off fre- Class-D operation makes it impracti- problem the designer has to over
quency slightly above the audio band cal, so a core has to be used in order specify the product in the sense that
(30-60KHz). Have in mind that one of to reduce turns count and also pro- only a small region of the saturation
the design parameters is the termina- vide a confined magnetic field that curve is used. Losses at high frequen-
tion load, that is, the speaker imped- reduces radiated EMI. It can be use cies are also a thread, implying the use
ance. Usually, a typical 4 or 8 ohm either powder cores or ferrite cores. of low permeability materials wound
resistor is assumed, but that would Ferrite cores, must have a gap where with some 30 to 50 turns.
produce variations in the measured energy is stored.Wire size should also
frequency response in presence of dif- be carefully chosen to keep DC and
ferent speakers.That must be compen- AC losses low (requiring thick wire).
Effective Permeability
This second graph shows the same cy sweep over the audio spectrum at a slightly better performance of the fer-
parameter (total harmonic distortion fixed output power (in this case 100 rite core over the powder core.
and noise percentage) over a frequen- watts). Again, the same result shows a
Figure 7:
Distortion over
output power
percentage ver-
sus frequency
comparing pow-
der alloy and
ferrite core
inductors.
Output power
100 watts, load 5
Ohms, voltage 5 Loading, Vcc = 50V, 100W
supply 50 Volts
Ferrite core design with
Ferroxcube gapped toroids
specifications Outer Inner Height Core Effective Effective Effective Mass Isolation
diameter diameter H (mm) factor volume length area (g) voltage
D (mm) d (mm) (mm-1) (mm3) (mm) (mm2) (V)
The cores are coated with Polyamide
11 (PA11), flame retardant in accor- TN13/7.5/5 13 6.6 5.4 2.46 368 30.1 12.2 1.8 1500
dance with UL94V-2, UL file number
TN17/11/6.4 17.5 9.9 6.85 2.24 787 42.0 42 3.7 1500
E45228 (M).The inner and outer diam-
eters apply to the coated toroid. TN20/10/6.4 20.6 9.2 6.85 1.43 1330 43.6 43.6 6.9 2000
Contacts are applied on the edge of TN23/14/7.5 24 13 8.1 1.69 1845 55.8 55.8 9.0 2000
the toroid for isolation voltage test,
TN26/15/11 26.8 13.5 11.6 0.982 3700 60.1 60.1 19 2000
which is also the critical point for the
winding operation.