Switched-mode power supply - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1

Switched-mode power supply

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Switched-mode power supply (also Switching-mode power supply, SMPS, or simply Switcher) is an electronic Power
Supply Unit (PSU) that incorporates a switching regulator in order to provide the required output voltage. An SMPS is
actually a power converter that transmits power from a source (e.g., a battery or the electrical power grid) to a load (e.g., a
personal computer) with ideally no loss. The function of the converter is to provide a reliable output voltage often at a
different level than the input voltage.

When mechanical shafts are rotating, a simple gear train can deliver power to a shaft at one speed from a shaft at a different
speed. However, fluid power can be converted from a source with one pressure–flow ratio to another pressure–flow level
without rotation by using the switching action of a hydraulic ram. Similarly, when AC power is being delivered from an AC
source, a simple transformer can be used to convert power at one voltage level to power at another voltage level with low
losses. Likewise, the switched action of an SMPS can convert DC power with low losses.

Interior view of an ATX SMPS:

Contents Below A - input EMI filtering
A - Bridge rectifier
1 Explanation B - Input filter capacitors
2 Advantages and Disadvantages Between B and C - Primary side heat sink
C - Transformer
2.1 Classification Between C and D - Secondary side heat
3 SMPS and linear power supply comparison sink
D - Output filter coil
4 Theory of operation
E - Output filter capacitors
4.1 Input rectifier stage The coil and large yellow capacitor below
4.2 Inverter stage E are additional input filtering components
4.3 Voltage converter and output rectifier that are mounted directly on the power
4.4 Regulation input connector and are not part of the
main circuit board.
5 Transformer design
6 Power factor
7 Types
7.1 Non-isolated topologies
7.2 Isolated topologies
7.3 Quasi-resonant ZCS/ZVS
8 Efficiency & EMI
9 Failure modes
10 Applications
11 Terminology
12 See also
13 External links
An adjustable switched-mode power
14 Book references supply for laboratory use
15 References

Explanation
A linear regulator maintains the desired output voltage by dissipating excess power in ohmic losses (e.g., in a resistor or in the collector–emitter region of a pass
transistor in its active mode). A linear regulator regulates either output voltage or current by dissipating the excess electric power in the form of heat, and hence its
maximum power efficiency is voltage-out/voltage-in since the volt difference is wasted. In contrast, a switched-mode power supply regulates either output voltage or
current by switching ideal storage elements, like inductors and capacitors, into and out of different electrical configurations. Ideal switching elements (e.g., transistors
operated outside of their active mode) have no resistance when "closed" and carry no current when "open", and so the converters can theoretically operate with 100%
efficiency (i.e., all input power is delivered to the load; no power is wasted as dissipated heat).

For example, the DC component (i.e., the time average) at one terminal of an inductor will match the DC component at the other terminal. If a DC source, an inductor, a
switch, and the corresponding electrical ground are placed in series and the switch is driven by a square wave, the voltage waveform measured across the switch will
also be a square wave. Because the inductor ensures that the average value of the output waveform matches the DC source voltage, the peak amplitude of the voltage
across the switch will be twice the voltage of the input. If a diode-and-capacitor combination are placed in parallel to the switch, the peak voltage can be stored in the
capacitor, and the capacitor can be used as a DC source with voltage higher than the DC voltage driving the circuit. This so-called boost converter acts like a step-up
transformer for DC signals.

In an SMPS, the output current flow depends on the input power signal, the storage elements and circuit topologies used, and also on the pattern used (e.g., PWM with
an adjustable duty cycle) to drive the switching elements. Typically, the spectral density of these switching waveforms has energy concentrated at relatively high
frequencies. As such, switching transients, like ripple, introduced onto the output waveforms can be filtered with small LC filters.

Hydraulic analogy explains the basic principle.[1]

Advantages and Disadvantages

The main advantage of this method is greater efficiency because the switching transistor dissipates little power when it is outside of its active region (i.e., when the
transistor acts like a switch and either has a negligible voltage drop across it or a negligible current through it). Other advantages include smaller size and lighter weight
(from the elimination of low frequency transformers which have a high weight) and lower heat generation due to higher efficiency. Disadvantages include greater
complexity, the generation of high-amplitude, high-frequency energy that the low-pass filter must block to avoid electromagnetic interference (EMI), and a ripple
voltage at the switching frequency and the harmonic frequencies thereof.

Very low cost SMPS may couple electrical switching noise back onto the mains power line, causing interference with A/V equipment connected to the same phase. Non
power-factor-corrected SMPSs also cause harmonic distortion.

Classification
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Switched-mode power supply - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 2
Classification
SMPS can be classified into four types according to the input and output waveforms:

AC in, DC out: rectifier, off-line converter input stage

DC in, DC out: voltage converter, or current converter, or DC to DC converter
AC in, AC out: frequency changer, cycloconverter, transformer
DC in, AC out: inverter

SMPS and linear power supply comparison

There are two main types of regulated power supplies available: SMPS and linear. The reasons for choosing one type or the other can be summarized as:

Comparison of a Linear power supply and a switched-mode power supply

Linear power supply
If a transformer is used, large due to low
Size and operating frequency (mains power
weight frequency is at 50 or 60 Hz). Small if
transformerless.
With transformer used, any voltages
Output available; if transformerless, not
voltage exceeding input. If unregulated, voltage with load.
varies significantly with load.
If regulated, output voltage is regulated
Efficiency,
by dissipating excess power as heat
heat, and
resulting in a typical efficiency of
power
30-40%[2]; if unregulated, transformer
dissipation
iron and copper losses significant.
Unregulated may be diode and capacitor;
regulated has a voltage regulating IC or
Complexity
discrete circuit and a noise filtering
capacitor.
Mild high-frequency interference may be
generated by AC rectifier diodes under
Radio heavy current loading, while most other
frequency supply types produce no high-frequency
interference interference. Some mains hum induction
into unshielded cables, problematical for
low-signal audio.
Unregulated PSUs may have a little AC
ripple superimposed upon the DC
Electronic
component at twice mains frequency
noise at the
(100-120 Hz). Can cause audible mains
output
hum in audio equipment or brightness
terminals
ripples or banded distortions in analog
security cameras.
Electronic
Causes harmonic distortion to the input
noise at the
AC, but relatively little or no high
input
frequency noise.
terminals
Faint, usually inaudible mains hum,
Acoustic
usually due to vibration of windings in
noise
the transformer and/or magnetostriction.
Low for a regulated supply because
Power factor current is drawn from the mains at the
peaks of the voltage sinusoid.
Supplies with transformers allow
metalwork to be grounded, safely.
Dangerous if primary/secondary
insulation breaks down, unlikely with
Risk of
reasonable design. Transformerless
electric shock
mains-operated supply dangerous. In
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched-mode_power_supply
Switching power supply Notes
A transformer's power handling capacity of given size and
weight increases with frequency provided that hysteresis
Smaller due to higher operating frequency
losses can be kept down. Therefore, higher operating
(typically 50 kHz - 1 MHz)
frequency means either higher capacity or smaller
transformer.
Any voltages available. Voltage varies little A SMPS can usually cope with wider variation of input
before the output voltage changes.
The only heat generated is in the non-ideal aspects of the
components. Switching losses in the transistors, on-
Output is regulated using duty cycle control, resistance of the switching transistors, equivalent series
which draws only the power required by the resistance in the inductor and capacitors, core losses in the
load. In all SMPS topologies, the transistors inductor, and rectifier voltage drop contribute to a typical
are always switched fully on or fully off. efficiency of 60-70%. However, by optimizing SMPS
design, the amount of power loss and heat can be
minimized; a good design can have an efficiency of 95%.
Multiple voltages can be generated by one transformer core.
For this SMPSs have to use duty cycle control. One of the
outputs has to be chosen to feed the voltage regulation
feedback loop (Usually 3.3 V or 5 V loads are more fussy
Consists of a controller IC, one or several
about their supply voltages than the 12 V loads, so this
power transistors and diodes as well as a
drives the decision as to which feeds the feedback loop. The
power transformer, inductors, and filter
other outputs usually track the regulated one pretty well).
capacitors.
Both need a careful selection of their transformers. Due to
the high operating frequencies in SMPSs, the stray
inductance and capacitance of the printed circuit board
traces become important.
EMI/RFI produced due to the current being
Long wires between the components may reduce the high
switched on and off sharply. Therefore, EMI
frequency filter efficiency provided by the capacitors at the
filters and RF shielding are needed to reduce
inlet and outlet.
the disruptive interference.
This can be suppressed with capacitors and other filtering
Noisier due to the switching frequency of the
circuitry in the output stage. With a switched mode PSU the
SMPS. An unfiltered output may cause
switching frequency can be chosen to keep the noise out of
glitches in digital circuits or noise in audio
the circuits working frequency band (e.g. for audio systems
circuits.
above the range of human hearing)
Very low cost SMPS may couple electrical
switching noise back onto the mains power
This can be prevented if a (properly earthed) EMI/RFI filter
line, causing interference with A/V
is connected between the input terminals and the bridge
equipment connected to the same phase. Non
rectifier.
power-factor-corrected SMPSs also cause
harmonic distortion.
Inaudible to humans, unless they have a fan or The operating frequency of an unloaded SMPS is sometimes
are unloaded/malfunctioning. in the audible human range.
Ranging from low to medium since a simple Active/Passive power factor correction in the SMPS can
SMPS without PFC draws current spikes at offset this problem and are even required by some electric
the peaks of the AC sinusoid. regulation authorities, particularly in Europe.
Due to regulations concerning EMI/RFI radiation, many
SMPS contain EMI/RFI filtering at the input stage before
the bridge rectifier consisting of capacitors and inductors.
Two capacitors are connected in series with the Live and
Common rail of equipment (including casing) Neutral rails with the Earth connection in between the two
is energised to half mains voltage, but at high capacitors. This forms a capacitive divider that energises the
common rail at half mains voltage. Its high impedance
impedance, unless equipment is earthed/
grounded or doesn't contain EMI/RFI filtering current source can provide a tingling or a 'bite' to the
3/4/2010 12:41:39 PM
Switched-mode power supply - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 3
p p y pp p gg q g
operator or can be exploited to light an Earth Fault LED.
240 V (althoughhazardous
a manual and
voltage
mustrange
be well-isolated.
switch may be required). In practice they will operate from a much wider frequency
However, range
this current may cause nuisance tripping on the
and often from a DC supply as well. In 2006, at an Intel Developers Forum, Google engineers proposed the mostusesensitive
of a single 12 V
residual-current devices.
supply inside PCs, due to the high efficiency of switch mode supplies directly on the PCB.[13]
Can fail so as to make output voltage very
Most modern desktop and laptop computers also have a voltage high. Can in some
regulator cases --
module destroy
a DC–DCinputconverter
stages on the motherboard to step
in amplifiers if floating voltage exceeds
down the voltage from the power supply or the battery to the CPU core voltage, which is as low as 0.8 VThe for afloating voltage
low voltage CPUis caused
to by capacitors bridging the
1.2–1.5 V for a desktop CPU as of 2007. Some transistor
motherboards have base-emitter
a setting in breakdown
the BIOS that voltage,
allows primary and
overclockers to secondary
set a new sides of the power supply. A
CPU
Risk of Very low, unless a short occurs between
core voltage; other motherboards support dynamic causing
scalingthe transistor's gainadjust
to drop
theand noise
core connection to an earthed equipment will cause a momentary
equipment the primary and secondary windingsvoltage
or which constantly
[3]
CPU voltage. Most laptop
computers also have a DC–AC converter to step up the levelsfrom
voltage to increase.
the batteryMitigated
to drive by good
the backlight in (andflat-screen
the potentiallymonitor,
destructive) spike in current at the
damage the regulator fails by shorting internally.
which typically requires around 1000 Vrms.[14] failsafe design. Failure of a component in the connector as the voltage at the secondary side of the
SMPS itself can cause further damage to capacitor equalises to earth potential.
other PSU components; can be difficult to
troubleshoot.

Theory of operation
Due to their high volumes mobile phone chargers have always been particularly cost sensitive. The first chargers were linear power
supplies but they quickly moved to the cost effective Ringing Choke Converter (RCC) SMPS topology, when new levels of
efficiency were required. Recently the demand for even lower no load power requirements in the application has meant that flyback
topology is being used more widely; primary side sensing flyback controllers are also helping to cut the bill of material (BOM) by
removing secondary-side sensing components such as optocouplers.

Where integration of capacitors for stabilization and batteries as a energy storage or hum and interference needs to be avoided in the
power distribution, SMPS may be essential for efficient conversion of electric DC energy. For AC applications where frequency and
voltage can't be produced by the primary source an SMPS may be essential as well. Applications may be found in the automobile
industry where ordinary trucks uses nominal 24 V DC but may need 12 V DC. Ordinary cars use nominal 12 V DC and may need to
convert this to drive equipment. In industrial settings, DC supply is sometimes chosen to avoid hum and interference and ease the
integration of capacitors and batteries used to buffer the voltage that makes SMPS essential. Most small aircraft use 28 V DC, larger aircrafts like Boeing-747 often use
[15]
3-phase 200Block
V AC 400 Hz
diagram of at up to operated
a mains 90 kVA,AC–DC though
SMPS they
withoften
outputhave a DC
voltage bus as well. Fighter planes such as the F-16 use 400 Hz power.[16] The MD-81 airplane has
regulation
an 115/200 V 400 Hz AC and 28 V DC power system generated by three 40 kVA AC generators. [17] Helicopters also use the 28 V DC system.[18] Some submarines
like
Inputthe rectifier class submarine uses two synchronous generators providing a variable three-phase current, 2×1500 kW, 400 V, 400 Hz.[19] The space shuttle uses
Soviet Alfastage
three fuel cells generating 30-36 V DC. Some is converted into 400 Hz AC power and 28 V DC power.[16][20] The International Space Station uses 120 V DC power.[21]
If the SMPS [22]then the first stage is to convert the input to DC. This is called rectification.
Larger truckshas
usean24AC input,
V DC.
The rectifier circuit can be configured as a voltage doubler by the addition of a switch operated either
More on aircraft
manually electric power:
or automatically. This isAvionics,
a featureAirplane
of largerground
suppliessupport
to permit operation from nominally 120 V or
240 V supplies. The rectifier produces an unregulated DC voltage which is then sent to a large filter
In the caseThe
capacitor. of TV sets, drawn
current for example,
from thean mains
excellent regulation
supply by this of the power
rectifier supply
circuit occurscaninbe shown
short by using
pulses arounda variac.
the For example, in some TV-models made by Philips, the
power
AC supply
voltage startsThese
peaks. whenpulses
the voltage reaches around
have significant high 90 V. Fromenergy
frequency there, which
one can changethe
reduces thepower
voltage with the variac, and go as low as 40 V and as high as 260 V (a peak
factor.
voltage control
Special of 260×sqrt(2)
techniques≈ 360
canVbe p-p), and theby
employed image will showSMPS
the following absolutely no alterations.
to force the average input current to
follow the sinusoidal shape of the AC input voltage thus the designer should try correcting the power factor.
Compact
An SMPSfluorescent
with a DC lamps use anot
input does simple form
require ofstage.
this boost An
converter
SMPS to generatefor
designed theACrequired 1200
input can V ignition
often be run and 600 V for sustained operation from the mains.
from a DC supply (for 230 V AC this would be 330 V DC), as the DC passes through the rectifier stage
unchanged.
Terminology It's however advisable to consult the manual before trying this, though most supplies are quite
capable of such operation even though nothing is mentioned in the documentation. However, this type of use
may be harmful
The term to the was
switchmode rectifier
widelystage as until
used it willMotorola
only use claimed
half of diodes in theofrectifier
ownership (but didfor
notthe full load.
register [23] This
) the trademark SWITCHMODE, for products aimed at the
[4]
may result in overheating
switching-mode power supplyof these components,
market, and startedandtocause them
enforce to fail
their prematurely.
trademark. [24]
Switching-mode power supply, switching power supply, and switching regulator refer to
[24] AC, half-wave and full-wave rectified signals.
this
If antype
inputofrange
powerswitch
supply.
is used, the rectifier stage is usually configured to operate as a voltage doubler when
operating on the low voltage (~120 V AC) range and as a straight rectifier when operating on the high
voltagealso
See (~240 V AC) range. If an input range switch is not used, then a full-wave rectifier is usually used and the downstream inverter stage is simply designed to be
flexible enough to accept the wide range of DC voltages that will be produced by the rectifier stage. In higher-power SMPSs, some form of automatic range switching
may beTransformer
used.
Leakage inductance
DC tostage
Inverter DC converter
Switching amplifier
Conducted
This section refersElectromagnetic Interference
to the block marked Chopper in the block diagram. The inverter stage converts DC, whether directly from the input or from the rectifier stage
Vibrator
described above,(electronic)
to AC by running it through a power oscillator, whose output transformer is very small with few windings at a frequency of tens or hundreds of
Autotransformer
kilohertz (kHz). The frequency is usually chosen to be above 20 kHz, to make it inaudible to humans. The output voltage is optically coupled to the input and thus very
tightlyJoule thief The switching is implemented as a multistage (to achieve high gain) MOSFET amplifier. MOSFETs are a type of transistor with a low on-resistance
controlled.
and a high current-handling
The boost be seen as analogous to a hydraulic ram, using the electronic–hydraulic analogy [25]
capacity.
converter can

Voltage
Externalconverter
links and output rectifier
If the output is requiredPower
Switching-Mode to be isolated from the(http://www.smpstech.com/tutorial/t00con.htm)
Supply Design input, as is usually the case in mains power supplies, the inverted AC is used to drive the primary winding of a high-
frequency transformer. This converts the voltage up or down to the required output level on its secondary winding. The output transformer in the block diagram serves
Unitrode Power Supply Design Seminar Books Online (http://www.smps.us/Unitrode.html)
this purpose.
Switching Power Supply design, PSpice simulation (http://www.smps.com/)
If a DCAoutput
generalisdescription of AC
required, the DC-DC converters
output from the(http://www.powerdesigners.com/InfoWeb/design_center/articles/DC-DC/converter.shtm)
transformer is rectified. For output voltages above ten volts or so, ordinary silicon diodes are commonly used. For
Online Power Supplies manufacturers database
lower voltages, Schottky diodes are commonly used as(http://www.powersupplies.net/)
the rectifier elements; they ave
Switching Power Supply, switch-mode supplies (http://www.gme.com.tw/pro.htm)
DC-DC Converter Tutorial (http://www.maxim-ic.com/appnotes.cfm/appnote_number/2031/CMP/WP-30) This article outlines the different types of switching
regulators used in DC-DC conversion.
Introduction to power supplies (http://www.national.com/an/AN/AN-556.pdf) – National Semiconductor
Compendium and database of power supply efficiency regulations (http://www.powerint.com/greenroom/regulations.htm)
Power Supplies industry press releases, jobs, design discussions (http://www.gotopower.com/)
SMPS Topologies Poster from TI (http://focus.ti.com/lit/sg/sluw001d/sluw001d.pdf)
A useful Web calculator and theory text for various SMPS topologies (http://schmidt-walter.eit.h-da.de/smpshome/)
Switching mode power supply's principle of operation and current formula. (https://www.nipron.co.jp/english/product_info/encyclopedia/1_3.htm)

Book references
AN19 A li ti N t LT1070 d i M l t i i t d ti i B k B t CUK I t li ti ith I t t d i it C l N l
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched-mode_power_supply 3/4/2010 12:41:39 PM