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How to design a limited power source industrial AC/DC power supply with...
Part one of this blog discussed basic needs of a Limited Power Source (LPS) and provided a brief overview of standards that govern LPS circuits.To address the needs of protection and limiting,...
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Output inductor considerations in a synchronous buck converter
Inductors are an essential component of switching voltage regulators and synchronous buck converters, as shown in Figure 1. In all switching regulators, the output inductor stores energy from the power...
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How an eFuse can help provide robust industrial power path protection
Any electronic systems are often subjected to harsh environments and threats such as electrostatic discharge (ESD), electrical fast transient (EFT) and lightning surges. Power designers must prioritize...
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How to meet power sequencing requirements with a PMIC
When designing a power solution for an application processor, your first considerations are often the number of rails needed, the output voltage and the maximum load current. There are tools like the...
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Don’t power your FPGA like this!
Oops. I attached my field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to the output of my DC/DC converter and now the DC/DC won’t start. When I look at the circuit with an oscilloscope, I see Figure 1. The output...
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Power Tips: Improve power supply reliability with high voltage GaN devices
Gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) improve converter efficiency, with a lower gate charge, lower output charge and lower on-resistance then silicon FETs with the same...
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PMBus benefits in multi-rail systems
You can find hardware systems with multiple low-voltage rails that need regulation, sequencing and monitoring in cloud infrastructure equipment like base stations, networking switches, servers and...
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How to simplify high-voltage power-supply design
High voltage power supplies are ubiquitous whether you are designing an AC/DC adapter or your high voltage on-board power supply for industrial applications. You find them commonly to step down your...
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Extend the input-voltage range of boost controllers
I was recently reading an amusing article posted on The Telegraph titled “50 technological advances your children will laugh at.” It is incredible to see how quickly technology is changing, and how...
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Power designs require powerful tools
Your boss just asked you to create a voltage regulator design to power the latest board revision. Do you have all the tools you need to create your design?Brain, check.Books, check.Coffee, check.Tools,...
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Simplifying 100V wide VIN power conversion
A switching regulator is an efficient device when you need to perform step-down power conversion. The wide input-voltage (VIN) space (which TI considers >30V) has seen an increased usage for these...
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How to simulate a load switch circuit with varying input voltages and loads
Load switches are used in a wide variety of applications, from cars to phones to servers to medical devices, so it would make sense that not everyone uses their load switch the same way. The data sheet...
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How to achieve higher system efficiency with high-current gate drivers
We live in a world where designers are on a seemingly constant pursuit for higher efficiency. We want more power out with less power in! Higher system efficiency is a team effort that includes (but is...
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How to implement remote sense in your processor power design
Hardware engineers often don’t consider the placement of the sense connection of buck converters in a power-management integrated circuit (PMIC) when powering an application processor. You might be...
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Input and output capacitor considerations in a synchronous buck converter
Capacitors are an essential component of a synchronous buck converter. There’s a variety of capacitor technologies so it’s important to know what parameter of the input and output capacitors you need...
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How to determine bandwidth from the transient-response measurement
I’ve often thought there must be an easy way to relate the bandwidth of a power-supply control loop to its transient response, but never really found a good reference that defined this in simple terms....
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Flyback converters: two outputs are better than one
Flyback converters are widely used for applications that require isolation between the primary and secondary. The flyback converter’s single primary switch and output rectifier provide a cost effective...
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Layout considerations for a synchronous buck converter
Buck DC/DC converters (see Figure 1) are a very popular switching DC/DC regulator topology in many electrical and electronic applications, from cloud infrastructure to personal electronics to factory...
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Four tips to debug a boost converter
The most efficient way to solve a problem with a converter such as failure to startup, output voltage unstable, etc. is to do some basic debugging. Basic debugging would rule out some obvious problems,...
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When should you use PWM controllers?
PWM is a control method that can be applied to many power-supply topologies. And because power supplies, regardless of topology, are used in an endless set of applications, they have the reputation of...
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