Basic Power Supply Application Guide

There are four basic types of power supplies used:

 Unregulated Linear

 Regulated Linear

 Ferroresonant

 Switch Mode

The differences between the four types include constant voltage output, cost efficiency, size,
weight, and ripple. This guide explains each type of supply, describes the principle of operation,
and outlines the advantages and disadvantages of each.

1. Unregulated Linear Power Supply

Unregulated power supplies contain four basic components: a transformer, rectifier, filter
capacitor, and a bleeder resistor.

This type of power supply, because of its simplicity, is the least costly and most reliable for low
power requirements. The disadvantage is that the output voltage is not constant. It will vary with
the input voltage and the load current, and the ripple is not suitable for electronic applications.
The ripple can be reduced by changing the filter capacitor to an IC (inductor-capacitor) filter but
the cost to make this change would make use of the regulated linear power supply a more
economical choice.
2. Regulated Linear Power Supply

A regulated linear power supply is identical to the unregulated linear power supply except that a
3-terminal regulator is used in place of the bleeder resistor.

The regulated linear power supply solves all of the problems of the unregulated supply, but is not
as efficient because the 3-terminal regulator will dissipate the excess power in the form of heat
which must be accommodated in the design of the supply. The output voltage has negligible
ripple, very small load regulation, and high reliability, thus making it an ideal choice for use in
low power electronic applications.

METHOD 1:

5V Power Supply using 7805 Voltage Regulator with Design

Component List:

1. Step down transformer

2. Voltage regulator
3. Capacitors
4. Diodes
 Transformer:

Selecting a suitable transformer is of great importance. The current rating and the
secondary voltage of the transformer is a crucial factor.

The current rating of the transformer depends upon the current required for the load to be
driven.

The input voltage to the 7805 IC should be at least 2V greater than the required 2V
output, therefore it requires an input voltage at least close to 7V.

So I chose a 6-0-6 transformer with current rating 500mA (Since 6*√2 = 8.4V).

Rectifying circuit :

The best is using a full wave rectifier

 Its advantage is DC saturation is less as in both cycle diodes conduct.

 Higher Transformer Utilization Factor (TUF).
 1N4007 diodes are used as its is capable of withstanding a higher reverse voltage of
1000v whereas 1N4001 is 50V
 Capacitors:

Knowledge of Ripple factor is essential while designing the values of capacitors

It is given by

 Y=1/(4√3fRC) (as the capacitor filter is used)

1. f= frequency of AC ( 50 Hz)

2. R=resistance calculated

R= V/Ic

V= secondary voltage of transformer

 V=6√2=8. 4
 R=8.45/500mA=16.9Ω standard 18Ω chosen

3. C= filtering capacitance

We have to determine this capacitance for filtering

Y=Vac-rms/Vdc

Vac-rms = Vr/2√3

Vdc= VMax-(Vr/2)

Vr= VMax- VMin

 Vr = 5.2-4.8 =0. 4V
 Vac-rms = .3464V
 Vdc = 5V
 Y=0 .06928

Hence the capacitor value is found out by substituting the ripple factor in Y=1/(4√3fRC)

Thus, C= 2314 µF and standard 2200µF is chosen

 Datasheet of 7805 prescribes to use a 0.01μF capacitor at the output side to
avoid transient changes in the voltages due to changes in load and a 0.33μF at the input
side of regulator to avoid ripples if the filtering is far away from regulator.

Circuit Diagram

METHOD 2:

Using four diodes:

It's the best and universally accepted form of power supply configuration as far as the
rectification process is concerned.

The clever use of four diodes makes things very simple, only a single secondary winding is all
that is required, the core saturation is perfectly optimized resulting in an efficient AC to DC
conversion.

The figure shows how a full wave rectified power supply is made using four diodes and a
relatively low value filter capacitor.
This type of diode configuration is popularly know as the bridge network, you may want to
know how to construct a bridge rectifier.

All the above power supply designs provide outputs with ordinary regulation and therefore
cannot be considered perfect, these fail to provide ideal DC outputs, and therefore are not
desirable for many sophisticated electronic circuits. Moreover these configurations does not
include a variable voltage and current control features.

However the above features may be simply integrated to the above designs, rather with the last
full wave power supply configuration through the introduction of a single IC and a few other
passive components.

METHOD 3:

How to Get Constant 5V, and 3V from Power Supply Circuit

Hello, you can achieve that simply through a 7805 IC for getting the 5V and by adding a couple
1N4007 diodes to this 5V for getting approximately 3.3V.

5 amp looks too high and I don't think you would require this much high current unless you are
also using this supply with an external driver stage carrying higher loads such as a high watt
LED or a motor etc.
so I am sure that your requirement can be easily fulfilled through the above mentioned
procedures.

for powering MCU through the above procedure you can use a 0-9V or a 0-12V trafo with 1amp
current, diodes could be 1N4007 x 4nos

The diodes will drop 1.4V when the input is a DC but when it's an AC like from a trafo then the
output will be raised by a factor of 1.21.

make sure to use a 2200uF / 25V cap after the bridge for the filtration

I hope the info will enlighten you and answer your queries.

The following image shows how to get 5V and 3.3V constant from a given power supply circuit.