A Look Inside and Component Analysis

Before you take a look at this PSU's internal specifications below and watch a corresponding video, we strongly suggest a look at this article for a much better grasp of the internal components in a PSU. Our main tool for the disassembly of the PSU is a Thermaltronics TMT-9000S soldering and rework station. It is of extreme quality and is equipped with a matching de-soldering gun. For the identification of tiny parts we use a Andonstar HDMI Digital Microscope.

At the time of the review, there were no commercial analog controllers available for a totem-pole PFC, so this design is only possible with a digital controller because of its flexible nature. Controlling a totem-pole PFC is much more difficult than a traditional APFC converter. The lack of bridge rectifiers, bidirectional inductor current, and function swap between main and sync switches are only some of the challenges engineers have to face and overcome with this converter.

The following video footage goes over the internals of the AX1600i: