Analysis and spectral characteristics of a spread-spectrum technique for conducted EMI suppression

Frequency modulation (FM) and random switching methods have been used for reducing conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI) in power converters. Limited theoretical studies and comparisons of these schemes, however, are available. In this paper, a detailed analysis and the spectral characteristics of a random carrier-frequency (RCF) technique for suppressing conducted EMI in an offline switched-mode power supply are presented. The analysis provides a theoretical platform for studying the characteristics of this random switching scheme. The level of randomness is defined for the RCF scheme and varied in the converter example so that the effects on the power spectra can be demonstrated. Theoretical predictions of the spectral characteristics of this scheme are confirmed with measurements. The RCF scheme has been compared with the standard constant-frequency pulsewidth modulation (PWM) scheme and the FM scheme. Comparisons of their spectral performance show that the RCF scheme has better conducted EMI suppression than the FM and standard PWM schemes.