Circuits & Schematics - Power - 9

To discover potential power-supply problems, you must run dynamic and static tests. This simple current sink tests low- to medium-power supplies and voltage sources. In this application, the current sink can draw current of 0 to 1.5 A for an ...

John Rice, Texas Instruments LEDs Magazine The non-synchronous, boost, power-conversion topology is often used in LED drivers in instances where the input voltage (VIN) is insufficient to forward bias a series/parallel set of LED strings. This ...

Dan Meeks EDN This Design Idea is a solid state relay (SSR) which uses a triac to switch AC loads at high current. There are plenty of simple SSR circuits available, but this may be the simplest circuit that achieves turn-on and turn-off only when ...

Sensors, electrostatic traps, and other applications require regulated, high-voltage power supplies that deliver modest amounts of output current. Simplicity, low quiescent current, and compactness are desirable in such supplies. The circuit of ...

Assume that a design requires positive voltage, but only a negative-voltage power source is available. Using a standard boost-converter IC in the circuit of Figure 1, you can efficiently generate a positive voltage from a negative source. The boost ...

Mike Rose EDN Using the fast dynamic load described in this Design Idea to test the transient response of a power system can reveal many critical operating characteristics. The voltage deviation resulting from a fast current step can provide ...

Tom Gross, Linear Technology Design Note 511 Introduction The LTC3626 synchronous buck regulator with current and temperature monitoring is the first of Linear’s SWITCHER+™ line of monolithic regulators. It is a high efficiency, ...

Ilija Uzelac EDN This Design Idea presents a simple, proven, reliable, and robust method for charging large capacitor banks, using a series connection of power MOSFETs to raise the breakdown voltage over that of an individual MOSFET. When a power ...

To measure high levels of direct current for overload detection and protection, designers frequently use either a current-shunt resistor or a toroidal core and Hall-effect magnetic-field sensor. Both methods suffer from drawbacks. For example, ...

Introduction A common problem in power distribution systems is loss of regulation due to the cable/wire voltage drop between the regulator and the load. Any increase in wire resistance, cable length or load current increases the voltage drop over ...