In this article, a novel high-power-factor electrolytic-capacitorless light-emitting diode (LED) driver based on the use of a ripple port is presented. The ripple port consists of adding an extra power processing circuit at the output of the converter that injects energy to compensate for the output current and voltage ripples. In this work, the main converter is built by using a flyback converter operating in the discontinuous conduction mode (DCM). The ripple port is implemented by adding an extra winding to the flyback coupled inductors, together with an extra switch, a capacitor, and an inductor. The additional switch is used to inject energy to the output in the time intervals, in which the flyback output current is low, thus reducing the output current ripple. The proposed converter is analyzed in detail, and a design methodology is proposed. A design example for a 27-V/1-A LED lamp is presented. Simulation and laboratory experiments have also been carried out. It is demonstrated that the proposed solution can achieve a reduction on the output current ripple of around 65% compared to the solution without ripple port for the same total capacitance and maintain a high power factor of 0.994.

The main contribution of this paper is to show a new AC/DC converter based on the rearrangement of the flyback converter. The proposed circuit only manages part of the energy and the rest is delivered directly from the source to the load. Therefore, with the new topology, the efficiency is increased, and the stress of the components is reduced. The rearrangement consist of the secondary of the flyback is placed in parallel with the load, and this arrangement is connected in series with the primary side and the rectified voltage source. The re-arranged flyback is only a reductive topology and with no magnetic isolation. It was studied as a power supply for LEDs. A low frequency averaged analysis (LFAA) was used to determine the behavior of the proposed circuit and an equivalent circuit much easier to analyze was obtained. To validate the theoretical analysis, a design methodology was developed for the re-arranged flyback converter. The designed circuit was implemented in a 10 W prototype. Experimental results showed that the converter has a THDi = 21.7% and a PF = 0.9686.

The main contribution of this study is to show the effect of light‐emitting diode (LED) modelling in the design of offline drives. The authors propose the use of a source voltage and resistance model (SVRM), consisting of a threshold voltage source in series with the characteristic resistance, for the modelling of the LED. The offline drive used for the analysis is the flyback converter operating in discontinuous conduction mode. The equivalent circuit is analysed by superposition and the AC circuit is analysed with phasors. The analysis has proven that the flyback converter can be modelled as a current source feeding the output capacitor in parallel with the load. Likewise, the analysis demonstrated that the current ripple is always greater than the voltage ripple when an LED is used as a load. In order to validate the theoretical analysis, a design methodology for the flyback converter with the SVRM as a load was developed. The designed circuit was simulated in Spice and implemented in a prototype. Experimental results using an LED as load are compared with the same circuit using a simple resistance as load. The experimental results confirm the theoretical analysis with an error of <6.6%.

This paper presents a theoretical analysis of a DC-DC flyback converter variant applied in energy harvesting based on thermoelectric generators. The main contribution of the article is the analysis and obtaining the equations of the behavior of the converter with a rearrangement of the elements of the traditional flyback converter in such a way that the converter only processes part of the energy while the other part is delivered directly to the load. This is achieved by connecting the secondary of the flyback in series with the load, and this assembly, in turn, is placed in parallel with the primary and the voltage source. This configuration means that the topology can only be a boost topology; however, there are benefits such as partial power processing (R²P²) and reduced stress on converter components in both voltage and current; all this leads to increase the efficiency. A Low Frequency Averaging Analysis (LFAA) was used to determine the behavior of the proposed circuit, and a simple equivalent circuit to analyze was obtained. In order to validate the theoretical analysis, a circuit was simulated in Spice and implemented in an 18 W prototype. Experimental results showed that the converter has an efficiency of 92.65%. Moreover, the rearranged flyback processed only 56% of the input power.

A theremin is a musical instrument which is played as a non-contact haptic device. Two antennas are used in combination with the hands of the player to generate two oscillatory signals, one for the tone and one for the volume of the audio signal produced. The design and experimental results of a hybrid digital theremin system are presented in this report. The design consists of two components: a hardware section based upon a previously designed system to which modifications have been made. Schmitt Trigger digital gates are used for the generation of the control voltages for the oscillators which in turn generate two signals at different frequencies. These signals are fed to a data acquisition board and from this sent to the second and novel component of the system: virtual instrument software developed in LabVIEW and running on a computer for the control of parameters of the musical signals produced. Virtual instrumentation is also used to enhance the output, by adding harmonic components and performing equalization. A general description of the system and results of the prototype testing are reported here.