Efficiency/reliability design requirements at low output voltage levels.

Higher efficiency and reliability are needed in the rectification used to produce low output voltages. To this end, the application of driven synchronous rectifier circuits is investigated. One reliability problem of such circuits, the ?double-on' resulting from storage time, is illustrated for low output voltages obtained from rectification of the square-wave outputs of low input voltage converters. A comparison of the rectification efficiency and reliability of driven transistor synchronous rectifiers with that of barrier diodes indicates that the choice of rectifiers in low output voltage applications is dependent on both the source and output voltage levels of the application.