Overview

Learn how to design digital power supplies and PFCs from the ground up quickly and easily with this in-depth laboratory based design workshop.

During the workshop you will learn how to design stable analog and digital control loops in both voltage mode and current mode. You will then design, code, implement and test several digital power supplies in our well-equipped laboratory. In addition, during the 4th day we will cover advanced digital concepts such as digital PFCs and and multi-loop converters to keep your knowledge up to date with the latest developments in power supply technology. 
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The workshop is four days long and is aimed at analog PSU designers and embedded systems engineers who need to design high performance stable digital power supplies or wish to advance their knowledge for personal development. We finish slightly earlier on the 4th day to allow easy travel specially for guests needing to get to the airport.

First the engineering concepts, theoretical material, step-by-step design procedures and power supply design equations are taught in the class and then these are all put onto practice with numerous laboratory exercises on real digital power supplies. The workshop manuals contains hundreds of pages of slides and comprehensive laboratory manuals. All labs are based on TI’s industry leading C2000 range of MCUs but the design practices taught in the class can be applied to any MCU.

The participants will work with no more that 2 engineers at a workstation. Our lab is extremely well equipped with 10 workstations. Therefore the maximum number of attendees is strictly limited to 20 engineers. Each workstation contains laptop with relevant development software, SIGLENT SDS2302X oscilloscope, power meters, current probes and a host of digital power supplies and PFC teaching kits. Bode 100’s network analysers will be available for demonstration of stable loop measurement.  

All attendees will receive:

• 4 days of intensive hand-one engineering training and lab based exercises 
• Workshop material with over 300 hundred pages of simple to follow slides and step-by-step laboratory scripts
• All necessary software templates and easy to program exercises to start you on your digital power projects*
• Lunch and refreshments

​Agenda​

Typically the morning session is dedicated to the study of theory and principles, whilst the afternoon session focuses on laboratory exercises to consolidate the theory.

An overview of the course syllabus is given below:

Day 1 (Tuesday): Introduction to Digital Power Programming

• Introduction to digital power
• Closed loop control of switch mode power supplies in analog and digital domains
• Biricha templates and easy project setup I/O pins, PWM, ADC, Interrupts etc., ideal for non-programmers
• Number formatting for digital Compensator design with:
  • floating point and 32 bit IQMath e.g. TI fixed point Piccolo C2000 devices
• Dealing with TI CLA core
• Hands-on Laboratory exercises*

Day 2 (Wednesday): Digital Power Supply Design

• Detailed study of analog power supply design fundamentals
• Detailed discussion and design of digital power supplies
• Implementing a simple digital controller for your digital power supply
• Digital voltage mode controller design
• Off-line power supply design considerations: Limit cycling, Hi-Res PWM, ADC quantization
• Hands-on Laboratory exercises

Day 3 (Thursday): Peak Current Mode Control and Running Multiple Control Loops

• Running multiple power supplies using the main core and the CLA
• Detailed review analog peak current mode design
• Removing sub-harmonic oscillation and slope compensation
• Digital peak current mode controller design
• Analog and digital slope compensation
• Phase margin erosion in digital domain due to delays
• Hands-on Laboratory exercises

Day 4 (Friday): Digital PFC Design & Implementation (Optional)
Learn how to design and stabilise single phase and interleaved digital power factor correction systems from ground up quickly and easily during this in-depth laboratory based day.

• Fundamentals of power delivery, power quality & PFC
• Single Phase CCM Boost PFC topology operation & design
• Digital PFC translated from analog PFC
• Step-by-step digital PFC control loop design (voltage loop and current loop)
• Voltage feed-forward & filter design in digital domain
• Digital interleaved PFC
• Hands-on Laboratory exercises

During this day we will start from basic principles and cover the entire design, loop stabilization, meeting the regulations and component selection. To verify all of the theory, in real life you will then implement your digital PFC design in our well-equipped lab.

Day 0 (Monday): Control Theory Fundamentals (Optional and US Only)
Join us a day early for this one day technical seminar covering the fundamentals of control theory for analog and digital control systems. This optional and free seminar is presented by Richard Poley of TI. More information can be found on his Control Theory website. This seminar is only available on selected workshops in the US. You will be given an opportunity to sign up during the workshop registration process.

Course Details

The class runs from 9:00am – 5:00pm on Day 1 -3.
The class runs from 9:00am – 4:00pm on Day 4 to allow for easy travel.
In the US, the optional Control Theory “Day 0” runs from 8:30am – 4:00pm.

​​The price includes:

• Comprehensive lecture notes and detailed step-by-step lab manual
• Lunch and refreshments throughout each day
• All workshop software templates and libraries

Audience

These workshops are designed for engineers who:

• Need learn how to design stable digital controllers for their power applications
• Need to understand power supply fundamentals, stability and design techniques with focus on digital power
• Need to get up to speed with digital voltage mode control and peak current mode control using both legacy and modern ICs

Prerequisites

The audience should have a degree in electrical/electronic engineering, computer science or equivalent.
These workshops are highly technical, intended for professional engineers and are not suitable for the general public without relevant qualifications.

Cancellation Policy

Classes are subject to cancellation if the minimum number of attendees is not met ten days prior to the date of the workshop and full refund will be given: Minimum = 5; Maximum = 20.
​In the event of short notice cancellation by Biricha due to unforeseen circumstances, the liability of Biricha and its partners is limited solely to the refund of the course fees. No refund will be given if you can not make the event but you may delay to another Biricha workshop or transfer your registration to a colleague. In fairness to all attendees, confirmed participants who do not attend the scheduled session are obliged to pay the liable fee.

Testimonials

Testimonials from past workshop participants

• “I highly recommend this workshop for engineers interested in an introductory class on digital power. I now have the ground work to read white papers on Digital Power to further my education.”
• “This was one of the best workshops of any kind that I have attended. The class content was very informational and the labs were engaging.”
• “This course provides a good over-view of the theory and then allows student to submerge into the practical designing aspect of a digital power supply. Very enlightening and powerful course.”
• “This is an excellent, solid, theory based seminar. It takes the mystery out of digital control.”
• “There are few instructors or workshops that clearly and efficiently present a continuous stream of valuable information. This is one of the best workshops I have attended in years and I left each day looking forward to the next. Outstanding material and presenter.”
• “The workshop has cleared the confusion surrounding what is possible with digital power and how to implement it. I will use this material to develop digital power solutions for automotive applications.”
• “The material is supported by many practical examples and tutorials, and includes a brief question and answer session at the end of each section.”
• “It was extremely useful hands-on practice orientated workshop, helping understanding in-deep design challenges.”
• “The workshop is very informative and interactive. You just don’t dig in to the theories but get a real feeling by doing hands-on lab.”