Control loop analysis

Power conversion

Switching analysis

Solutions for power conversion switching analysis

To maximize a power converter’s performance and efficiency, a common practice is to increase the switching frequency. When increasing a power design’s switching speed, the timing characteristics, interactions between high and low side transistors, and undesired outcomes such as shoot-through and excessive EMI must be accounted for. Rohde & Schwarz oscilloscopes, power probes, and software enables power designers to characterize and optimize their designs.

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AppCard: Increasing confidence of full-bridge converter operation during the design process

Power converters with a full-bridge topology are frequently used in telecommunications and servers that need to be compact, efficient and cost sensitive, making them more complex. Switching patterns for all the main primary switches including synchronous rectifier switches need to be validated after the first protype is built. This complex validation requires proper measurement of switching patterns to prevent catastrophic switching patterns. Expertise and the right measurement tools are essential when identifying unexpected events in the converter switching process.

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AppNote: AC-DC converter testing fundamentals

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This webinar is intended for engineers who work on power converter designs.

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Step-by-Step guide: Double pulse testing

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Verification Methods Of Snubber Circuits in Flyback Converters

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AppCard: Increasing test coverage in hard switching half bridge configurations

Power converter and inverter designs for higher power levels are usually based on hard switching half bridge configurations. In such setups, users must pay particular attention to proper switching operations to prevent shoot-through events. Setting up complex real-time trigger conditions using the R&S®RTE and R&S®RTO oscilloscopes increases the test coverage and robustness of converter and inverter systems.

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White paper: Gate drive measurement considerations

The more successful a gate driver is in reducing power-up and power-down times, the bigger the headache for accurate measurements. Both choosing the right probe and optimizing the probing technique are significant factors in improving measurement accuracy. This white paper provides guidelines

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Webinar: Half bridge and gate drive measurements and techniques

Register and watch the webinar from March 2020: Half bridge and gate drive measurements and techniques with Tom Neville, Technology Manager at Rohde & Schwarz.

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White paper: Testing SiC designs

This white paper discusses EMI challenges associated with migrating a design from Si to SiC, test tools and test methodology, along with mitigation and optimization techniques.

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Switching analysis on wide bandgap devices

Power conversion designs migrating from silicon to wide bandgap

An increasing number of power converter designs that use wide bandgap (WBG) materials such as SiC and GaN have become commercially available. A WBG semiconductor's fast switching capability must be well characterized to determine the power losses during switching and conduction, to optimize efficiency gains and to avoid negative effects such as shootthrough or excessive EMI. A Rohde & Schwarz oscilloscope with high resolution and low noise combined with a Rohde & Schwarz high-voltage differential probe with superior common mode rejection across frequency allows power converter designers to:

  • Accurately measure power losses during switching and conduction
  • Verify rise/fall time from hundreds of ps to 10s of ns
  • Characterize timing events such as dead time

Read the R&S High-Voltage Differential Probes Factsheet:

Switching analysis measurement equipment

Power conversion designs are switching at higher frequencies and moving toward higher voltages. Making accurate switching analysis measurements requires a high-resolution oscilloscope and high voltage differential probes with top performance, large differential and common mode range, and high common mode rejection across the bandwidth.

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R&S®RTM3000 / RTA4000

See more of your signal with the power of 10. With up to 1 GHz bandwidth, these oscilloscopes offer 10-bit vertical resolution and ultra deep memory for longer acquisitions at full bandwidth.

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R&S®RTO6 oscilloscope

Featuring an updated user interface on a larger, 15.6-inch Full HD touchscreen and straightforward workflows, it speeds up daily measurement tasks. The R&S RTO6 delivers deep insights into designs on the engineer's workbench with state-of-the-art specifications such as an outstanding 9.4 ENOB, an unparalleled update rate of one million waveforms per second as well as a comprehensive toolset of analysis functions.

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R&S®RT-ZHD high voltage differential probes

Designed in-house with superior performance, large differential and common mode range and superior common mode rejection across the bandwidth.

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Related topics

Efficiency testing

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EMI debugging and analysis

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Control loop analysis

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