POWER SUPPLY UNIT

TYPES OF POWER SUPPLIES: There are two types of power supplies: 1. Linear Power Supplies 2. Switched Mode Power Supplies (SMPS)

Linear power supplies:

The linear power supply is a well known power supply since the advent of electronics.

The above circuit in fig (2.1) shows a linear power supply. Vin is the ac main voltage with 50 Hz supply frequency. A conventional transformer is used to step down the ac main to low voltage of same frequency. This secondary voltage is rectified and filtered. The resulting dc output is fed to a series pass transistor. A sample of Vout derived from the potential divider is compared with the Zener Diode produced reference voltage and the difference is amplified and used to control the power transistor to maintain constant output voltage. However this mode of operation dissipates a large amount of power in the form of heat, consequently lowering the efficiency of power to 40% or 50%. Thus, because of lower efficiency, bulky heat sinks and cooling fans, larger isolation transformers are used to step down the ac voltage. So this type of power supply is not suited for compact electronic system.

Switched Mode Power Supply

The disadvantages of linear power supply are greatly reduced or eliminated by the regulated switching power supply.

The fig shows a simplified block diagram of a high frequency off the line switching power supply. In this scheme the ac line is directly rectified and filtered to produce a raw high voltage be quite small due to high operating frequency. High the combination of high frequency with the small size of the transformer, results in compact, light weight power supplies, with power densities of upto 30 Watt/Cubic in for linear. Coupled with very wide input voltage range, 90 to 260 volts ac and very good hold up time, typically 25 ms, the switch has become the choice for electronic system designers. Of course there are certain disadvantages associated with switching power supply, such as higher output noise and ripple, EMI/RFI generation and higher design complexity. However, with careful design these problems may be reduced or eliminated.

Advantages of linear and switched mode power supplies:

LINEAR POWER SUPPLY

Tight regulation band Very low output noise ripple Low complexity

SWITCHED MODE POWER SUPPLY

Very high overall efficiency. Lower operating temperature and relaxed heat removal problems. Small power transformer size due to high switching frequency