A Smart Synchronous Rectifier for I 2 V Automobile Alternators

Stephan Rees Ulrich Ammann

University of Stuttgart, Institute of Power Electronics and Control Engineering
Pfaffenwaldring 47,70569 Stuttgart, Germany
phone: +49 (0) 711/685-7401, fax: +49 (0) 711/685-7378
e-mail: rees@ilr.uni-stuttgart.de,www.uni-stuttgart.de/ilr

Abstract - A new gate control unit for Power MOSFETs is
presented in this paper, which is especially suited for
synchronous rectifiers in 12 V automobile vehicle-nets to replace
inefficient silicon diodes. Unlike known control units for such
synchronous rectifiers based on comparator circuits or external
timing control, the proposed circuitry is inexpensive and
insensitive, as it consists of only one operational amplifier and
some passive components per MOSFET. Measurements taken on
a prototype synchronous rectifier connected to a standard
passenger cars alternator prove a major increase of the
rectification efficiency as well as a higher output current of the
alternator compared to a standard diode rectifier. This
synchronous rectifier operates at load currents up to 120 A and
up to a maximum alternator speed of 15000 rpm. The entire gate
drive circuit is described, providing information about the
desired properties of its components. The switching processes of
the presented circuit as well as the parameters which determine
its operational performance are explained in detail.
I. INTRODUCTION
Since an increasing number of electrical appliances for
driving convenience or driving safety is used in modern
passenger vehicles, the capability and efficiency of the
electrical power generation is a perpetual concern in modern
automotive electronics [1,2]. Existing power generation
systems need to be improved continuously to fulfil the
growing demands.
Present passenger vehicles standard electrical power
supply is provided by a belt-driven claw-pole synchronous
machine and a bridge-connected diode rectifier (Fig. 1) [3].
An integrated regulator controls the vehicle-net voltage U, by
varying the excitation current I,.
The output current I, is driven into the vehicle-net by the
induced alternator voltage, starting at the specific so-called
0-ampere-speed and following a characteristic as
shown in Fig. 2 (--)for a fully excited alternator. Besides this
induced alternator voltage, I, is determined by the vehicle-net
voltage U, and the electrical parameters of the circuit, such as
stator reactance, stator resistance, line resistance and the
forward voltage of the rectifier diodes.
Especially the almost constant diode forward voltage is a
critical point to the system qualities: It causes significant
conduction losses and an undesirably high 0-ampere-speed
A suitable way to avoid these disadvantages is to replace
the diodes with properly controlled MOSFETs in order to
imitate an ideal diode behavior. Assuming ideal control of
the MOSFETs gates, the output current characteristic would
be modified as shown in Fig. 2 (-), with a decreased
0-ampere-speed higher efficiency and higher output
current I,. For proper control of such a synchronous rectifier,
a control and gate drive circuit is necessary for all of the six
MOSFETs to switch them on or off accordingly to the current
flow and the voltage conditions.
efficiency
> 60% *\ > 50%;: > 40%

I 1 1
-- I,
O,FET

Fig. 2. Exemplary output characteristic of a passenger vehicle altemator

(fully excited) equipped with a conventional rectifier (- -) and with a
synchronous rectifier using MOSFETs (-).
Vehicle-
net
(battery
and
11. GATEDRIVE CONTROL UNIT
loads) While known gate control units for synchronous recti-
fication use comparators to derive a two-state gate signal or
utilize external control, e.g. by sensing the rotor position, the
gate drive principle presented here works differently. It is
Fig. 1. Simplified schematic of a vehicles electrical power supply. independent for each MOSFET and requires the MOSFETs
drain-source voltage as the only input information. Therefore,

0-7803-7754-0/03/$17.00 02003 IEEE 1516

the new gate control unit's principle of operation is explained
for a single MOSFET, considering the MOSFET as a three-
terminal element with known properties.
2.1. Premises
For the following explanations of the presented gate drive
unit, it is important to consider that for the diode replacement
in the rectifier application:
0 the MOSFET is only used in backward direction (ID I O ) ;
0 the MOSFET's body diode always serves as a backup;
the drain-source voltage U,, and the drain current I, are
always close to zero when switching;
0 the switching frequency in automotive rectifiers does not
exceed 1,5 kHz (15000 rpm maximum alternator speed);
the stator inductance causes current overlapping during
commutation.
For further examination of the circuit, the conducting
MOSFET is represented by its on-resistance RDSon, where
RDSon depends on the gate-source voltage U,,, the drain
current ID and the junction temperature 6. In blocking state,
the MOSFET is considered as an ideal open circuit with a
silicon diode in parallel.
ID ID
Is Is
Fig. 3. Equivalent schematic diagram used for the MOSFET in conducting
and blocking state.
The switching signal to be applied on the MOSFET's gate
for proper synchronous rectification, or - in general - to
replace a diode, can be derived directly from UDs:
U,, < 0 + turnMOSFETon
U,, 2 0 + turn MOSFET off.
In conducting state, U,, is determined by the voltage drop
whereas in blocking state, the applied voltage U
, is positive
and determined by the external circuitry.
2.2 Proposed gate drive strategy
Considering the equivalent schematic diagram of the
conducting MOSFET in Fig. 3 and assuming usage of latest
technology MOSFETs (RDSon 4 d), the measurement of
U,, causes great difficulties due to the extremely small
values in conducting state with low drain current applied.
Hence, especially the transition from conducting into
blocking state causes problems, as the exact zero-crossing of
U,, is almost undetectable. Deriving a two-state gate signal
1517
for the MOSFET from the measured drain-source voltage can
therefore lead to undesirable side effects such as toggling,
sensitivity to interferences or increased circuit expenses.
The new approach presented here does not use a two-state
gate signal, which would be common for power electronics
applications. On the contrary, it is based on the fact that a
two-state operation is not necessary in this rectifier appli-
cation. Since the commutation processes are exclusively
natural, high drain current does never appear at the MOSFETs
at switching instants. Switching rapidly is therefore not a
premise to reduce switching losses.
Consequently, switching problems can be avoided by use
of a continuous gate signal, also derived from the drain-
source voltage. An extremely inexpensive way to implement
such a gate drive strategy is shown in Fig. 4. An operational
amplifier (OPA) used as an analog inverter provides the
desired gate signal and operates as the gate driver at the same
time.
I
t '
Fig. 4. One MOSFET of the synchronous rectifier with the proposed gate
drive unit (left) and its transfer characteristic (right).
For the circuit in Fig. 4, the gate-source voltage U,, becomes
within the linear range of the amplifier. The amplification
factor v determines the drain current required to keep the
gate-source voltage on a specific level during the conduction
interval, especially the drain current required to achieve full
gate voltage. Assuming RDSon = 4 mR, v = 500 and ideal
amplification, a drain current of only ID = -5 A suffices to get
a gate-source voltage of 10 V.
2.3 Switching characteristics and required element
properties
The switching properties of the presented circuit will be
explained in detail by respective measurements on the
prototype rectifier (see section 111). Fig. 5 shows a switching
process of one low-side MOSFET (at n = 1500 rpm,
I, = 45 A mean) during one electrical period. In analogy,
phase shifted voltage and current conditions are given in
adjacent phases and for the high-side MOSFETs of the
bridge-connected rectifier.
 20 GS -
- IOW+
ID1 = (3)
10 RDSon . RDSon
0 A switching off process is shown in Fig. 6b. As soon as the
20 drain current decreases as a result of the commutation to the
10
adjacent rectifier branch, the gate voltage is reduced and
reaches the threshold voltage Uth at
0

-10
0 RDSon . - RDSon .
-20
-40
-60
0 1 2 3
Fig. 5. Voltages and current applied on one low-side MOSFET at 1500 rpm.
Positive drain-source voltage U, corresponds to negative
gate-source voltage U, and blocking MOSFET, and there-
fore a drain current of zero. Negative drain current leads to a
positive gate-source voltage (see (1) and (2)), which turns the
MOSFET on.
The measurements in Fig. 6 show detailed switching
processes of Fig. 5.
Turning the MOSFET on is initialized by a negative drain-
source bias voltage applied at the body diode (Fig. 6a). This
voltage is inversely amplified and leads to charging the gate
with the maximum OPA output current. As soon as UGs
- uth
GS
ID2 = (4)
where the MOSFET starts blocking. The full decrease of the
drain current to zero initiates the final gate discharging down
to the negative supply voltage with the maximum sink
current of the OPA.
.~
4 5 t (ms) The continuous transition from one state into the other is
mainly determined by the amplification factor v, the OPAs
properties and the gate input capacitance C, of the MOSFET.
To achieve adequate switching times with MOSFETs
commonly used in such applications (CG=lOnF), it is
sufficient to provide gate charging and discharging currents of
20mA. These currents can even be driven by low-power
OPAs, which allows a comparably simple power supply (see
section 2.4). Fig. 7 shows a switching process of one low-side
MOSFET at maximum alternator speed of 15000 rpm
(IB = 75 A mean), which proves that the low-power OPA
used in the prototype (quiescent current I, = 250 PA, see
section 111) is sufficient for the considered application of
automotive rectifiers, usually showing a maximum switching
frequency of 1,5 kHz.

v& -
reaches the MOSFETs threshold voltage Uth, a linear ampli-
fication of UDs proceeds until the full gate voltage
U, = Ulow+ is reached at

uDsv -0.4
a

body d i e
biasing
b

0 I I
20
.
UGS fV)
t lo
-10- ~ I ---c

1
0
0 I D (A)
-40
-10
-80

-1 20

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 t (ms)

I t I *
0 400 800 t(ps) 0 400 800 t(ps)
Fig. 7. Voltages and current applied on one low-side MOSFET at 15000 rpm.

Fig. 6. Detailed turn-on (a) and tum-off (b) switching waveforms

of one low-side MOSFET at 1500 rpm.

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2.4 Power supply
As there is generally only the vehicle-voltage U, available
in passenger cars, the bipolar power supply voltages required
by the OPAs have to be provided by additional circuitry,
which should be as simple and inexpensive as possible.
Especially capacitors are undesirable components in auto-
motive applications.
The presented control unit does not require exact or ideally
smoothed voltages, which is a major advantage. In fact it is
sufficient to guarantee minimum values of the power supply
voltages for turning the MOSFET on or off safely. This is, for
the positive supply, a voltage of Ulow+ = Uhigh+ = 10 V in
order to achieve an acceptable RDSon and for the negative
supply a voltage below zero, say Ulow- = U,.,i@- = -5 V to
block the MOSFET safely.
In order to simplify the circuitry, it is reasonable to design
the power supply circuits differently for high-side and low-
side MOSFETs. This is shown in Fig. 8 and explained below.
alternator
terminals
U
V supply is available at low alternator speed, it is preferable to
W use Schottky diodes for this cascade.
Fig. 8. Power supply topology for the OPAs in one rectifier branch.
A. High-side MOSFETs
Standard bootstrap circuits are used to store the electrical
energy for the supplies of the three high-side OPAs, hence a
total of six capacitors and six diodes is required. In order to
gain maximum benefit of the synchronous rectification, one
has to ensure the minimum value of uhigh+ at all speeds,
especially at the specific minimum speed nmin < no. This
speed nmin, the quiescent current Iq of the OPA and the
tolerated supply voltage drop AU within one electrical period
determine the value of the bootstrap capacitors C, and C,.
As the capacitors are recharged twice during an electrical
period from the adjacent phases, the maximum storage time
can be approximated with half an electrical period. A
minimum speed of nmin = 700 rpm (fmin= 70 Hz , number of
pole pairs p = 6) leads to a storage time of Tstore = 7 ms. The
used OPAs quiescent current is Iq = 250 pA [4], so that one
gets necessary capacities as low as
1519
if AU is defined to be about 2 V . As the negative supply
voltage drop can even be higher without affecting the
functionality, C; may be chosen smaller, such as 680 nF.
B. Low-side MOSFETs
The positive power supply Ulow+ can directly be drawn
from the vehicle-net voltage U, for all low-side OPAs, but
the common negative power supply voltage Ulow- has to be
generated separately.
A very simple implementation is shown in Fig. 8. The two-
step cascade topology provides negative voltage with respect
to the ground terminal B- with minimum cost of capacitors
and without any switching DC-DC-converters.
In a first step, the intermediate storage capacitors C,, C,
and C, are charged from the alternator terminals according to
the line-to-line voltage polarity. Subsequently, this charge is
shifted below B- potential as a result of the changing potential
of the alternator terminals and fed into C3 to supply the low-
side OPAs with Ulow-.
Due to the three-phase feed-in for C3 from all three
alternator terminals, C, can be kept even smaller than C, and
C;. A capacity of 470 nF for C3 to C, is sufficient. To mini-
mize the voltage drop under load and to ensure that negative
2.5 Fail-safe operation and parameter tolerance
The failure probability of the presented control unit is
comparably low, because of the small number of necessary
components. In addition, all parameters do not need to match
exact values. Temperature drifts can therefore be easily
tolerated, which is an important point in automotive elec-
tronics. Neither the amplification factor v (represented by the
resistors R, and R2), nor the capacities of the supply circuits
capacitors, nor the OPAs properties must be kept constant.
Most component failures lead to turning the MOSFET off,
which keeps the entire rectifier running with the aid of the
intrinsic body diodes. In case of a breakdown of the positive
supply voltage, the circuit is kept in safe condition, with the
affected MOSFETs blocking. Failure of the negative supply
voltages is also uncritical as long as this voltage does not get
positive. A gate discharging resistor from gate to source can
ensure blocking MOSFETs in case of an output open-circuit
of the OPA.
111. ACHIEVABLE
IMPROVEMENTS AND EXPERIMENTAL
RESULTS
The reduced voltage drop of low on-resistance MOSFETs
compared to silicon diodes leads to three measurable effects
on the alternator-rectifier behavior:
1. The conduction losses of the rectifier are reduced
which increases the overall efficiency of the power
generation;
 2. the 0-ampere-speed is reduced, allowing lower idling where qalt is the alternator efficiency. The measured results,
speed of the combustion engine; displayed in Fig. 10, can be verified with the numbers given
3. as a result of 2., the output characteristic is shifted to in Fig. 9 and equation (10).
the left resulting in increased output current I, at low
speed.
The following subsections give a mathematical explanation
on these effects. The calculated values are confirmed by the
measurements shown in Fig. 10 and Fig. 11, which were
taken on a prototype rectifier. This rectifier consists of six
gate control units and a power supply as described above,
using the OPA LT1351 [4] and the MOSFET PSMN005-75W
(RDson = 4 m Q at 25C). Operating conditions are a
maximum output current of 120 A mean, a vehicle-net
voltage of 14 V and an alternator speed within the range from
1000 to 15000 rpm (electrical frequencies from 100 to
I I
1500 Hz). 0 20 40 60 80 100 120

1. As for any comparable uncontrolled low voltage and low I B (A)

Fig. 9. Power dissipation of a diode and synchronous rectifier.
frequency rectifier, switching losses can be neglected. In
contrast, the conduction losses of the diodes are significant
2. The 0-ampere-speed no, also indicated in Fig. 2, is the
and within a range from 0 to 250 W depending on the output
operating point at which the induced alternator voltage equals
current.
The dissipated power for a bridge-connected diode rectifier the vehicle-net voltage U,. Considering the additional voltage
comes to drop of 2uD for the diode rectifier, this operating point is
described by
Pc,D=2*UD*IB 9 (6)
because there is always the entire current I, conducted by two
diodes, regardless of overlapping. U, is the diode forward
voltage depending on temperature and drain current. for the diode and an ideally controlled synchronous rectifier.
For the synchronous rectifier using MOSFETs, the power Therefore the achievable difference is
losses are given as
2.UD
An0 = - =-
'C,FJ3T = .RDSon . IB2 (7) K*@(Ie) '
in case of no overlapping (instant commutation), and where KCD(Ie) is a proportional factor of the alternator,
depending on its excitation. Ano is about 150 rpm for a partly
R D S *~ ~ ' h
p c , =~2 * ~ (8) excited and 100 rpm for a fully excited alternator. This result
in case of overlapping. 3L can be approximated with the is confirmed by the measurements in Fig. 11.
overlap angle U (0 < U < E), which is the commutation interval
3 3. The resulting output characteristic can be approximated by
in electrical degrees:
a simple function as follows
(9)

The results of these calculations are graphically displayed

for both rectifiers in Fig. 9, considering the diode resistance,
the variation of RDSonwith I, and temperature effects.
Presumed that a constant battery voltage of U, is present,
the improvement of the overall power generation efficiency is
given as
Aq = qalt * (qrect,D - qrect,FET)
where the constants K,, K, and K3 can be derived from the
parameters of the alternator and the load circuit. Avoiding the
constant diode forward voltage U, by using the synchronous
rectifier modifies the characteristic given in (13) in the
measured way (Fig. 10). Note that the output current I, for
infinite speed (n + 03) is the same with both rectifiers.

1520
 120 - I

100 -. I /--- I I I I I

80 --
60 -.

40 -.

20 --
0- I I.?,* Y .- I I I I I I I

0.8 -

'1
t I:
O;:

0.65 --
0.6
-.
0,55 --
0,s
--

0.45 -
0 2000 4000

--------. Diode, I, = 3 A
6000 8000

Diode, I, = 2 A
10000

--------.
12000

Diode, I, = 1 A
14000
-
- MOSFET, I e = 3 A - MOSFET, 1, = 2 A - MOSFET, I, = 1 A
n (rpm)

Fig. 10. Output characteristic and overall efficiency of the altemator with both rectifiers.

1600
improvements may even be increased by the use of
MOSFETs with a lower RDSon or paralleling discrete
MOSFETs.
1400 The core components of the rectifier's gate control unit can be
realized as an ASIC and' the values of the additionally
required capacitors are comparatively small. Therefore the
1200
13001
presented rectifier can straightly replace the diode rectifier of

"""I '
1000

9001 I I I I
conventional alternators.

REFERENCES
I
PI Vol3, B.; Gem, G.: Bedarfsorientierte Nebenaggregate,
I
1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Congress "Beitrage der Fahrzeugtechnik zur
I e (A) Verbrauchssenkung", WolfsburgIGermany, Nov. 1993,
Fig. 11.0-ampere-speedof the altemator with both rectifiers.
VDI Berichte 1099, 1993
PI http://www.bordnetzforum-42v.de/bordnetz/42v-e.html
[31 Automotive Handbook (4'h Edition), Robert Bosch
GmbH, Germany 1996, p. 813
IV. CONCLUSIONS [41 Linear Technologies: Datasheet for LT1351 Operational
Amplifier, www.linear.com
A smart self-controlled synchronous rectifier for
automobile alternators is presented in this paper. By using the
proposed rectifier the overall efficiency of the power
generation can be increased significantly (by 7 % at the most
important part-load operation) as well as the alternator's 0-
ampere speed can be much reduced, which is confirmed by
respective measurements on a prototype rectifier. These

1521