summary of power Supplies

summary

● The primary purpose of a power supply is to convert AC to DC.

● Power supplies built with transformers are not isolated from the power source.

● Transformers are used in power supplies for isolation and to step up or step down the voltage.

● A rectifier circuit converts incoming AC voltage to pulsating DC voltage.

● The basic rectifier circuits are half-wave, full-wave, and bridge.

● Half-wave rectifiers are simpler and less expensive than either full-wave or bridge rectifiers.

● The full-wave rectifier is more efficient than the half-wave rectifier.

● The bridge rectifier can operate without a transformer.

● To convert pulsating DC voltage to a smooth

DC voltage, a filter must follow the rectifier in the circuit.

● A capacitor in parallel with the load is an effective filter.

● A voltage regulator provides constant output re- gardless of load and input voltage changes.

● The voltage regulator is located after the filter in the circuit.

● The two basic types of voltage regulators are the shunt regulator and the series regulator.

● The series regulator is more efficient and therefore more popular than the shunt regulator.

● Voltage multipliers are circuits capable of providing higher DC voltages than the input volt- age without the aid of a transformer.

● Voltage doublers and voltage triplers are voltage multipliers.

● Voltage dividers can reduce high voltages to lower voltages.

● A crowbar is a circuit designed for overvoltage protection.

● A fuse protects a circuit from a current overload.

● Fuses are classified as either normal or slow-blow.

● Circuit breakers perform the same job as fuses but do not have to be replaced each time there is an overload.

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