An active clamp is a reactive circuit connected to an ac node whose affects are
directly controlled by the control IC. Active clamps are used to slow the tran-
sition time of the voltage waveform for only one edge of an ac power waveform.
By slowing the transition time of the voltage waveform, the switching loss during
that transition can be significantly reduced by lowering the instantaneous
voltage value during the cross-over period.
A typical active clamp can be seen in Figure 4–7 along with its effect upon
the ac waveform. During turn-off, a discharged clamp capacitor is placed in par-
allel with the power switch. The capacitor ...
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