9/12/13 Power Supply Tutorial- SMPS

SWITCH MODE POWER SUPPLY TUTORIAL

BLOCK DIAGRAM and BASIC THEORY OF OPERATION

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This may sound like a silly question, but what are power supplies doing?

Home Well, here are their main functions:

Tutorial Changing the form of electric power. For example, electricity from the

grid is transmitted in the form of AC, while electronic circuits need DC;
Topologies
Regulation. Mains voltage varies worldwide from 100 to 240VAC and
SMPS design
is usually poorly regulated, while the circuits normally require well
Software stabilized low-level fixed voltages;

PCB design Safety isolation. In most applications the outputs have to be isolated

Computer from the input.

PSU
UPS Practically every piece of electronic equipment needs some form of

Circuit power conversion. Power supply unit (PSU), technically speaking, is a

device that transfers electric energy from a source to a load and in the
Transformers
process changes its characteristics to meet specific requirements. Of
Formulas course, this term is not the most adequate. A PSU does not really supply
EE Reference power, it only converts it. Its typical application is to convert a utility's AC

Inverters into required regulated DC rail(s). Depending on the mode of operation of

Thermal the semiconductors, the converters can be linear or switching.

design
Generators SMPS stands for switch mode PSU. In such a device, power handling

electronic components are continuously switching "on" and "off" with

Solar
high frequency in order to provide the transfer of electric energy via

energy storage components (inductors and capacitors). By varying duty

FIND POWER cycle, frequency or a relative phase of these transitions an average value

SUPPLY of output voltage or current is controlled. The operating frequency range

PRODUCTS BY of commercial SMPS units varies typically from 50 kHz to several MHz

SPEC (see more on frequency selection).

Below is a conceptual circuit diagram of a typical off-line SMPS. This

tutorial will introduce you to its operation.

DESIGN BASICS

AC power first passes through fuses and a line filter. Then it is rectified

by a full-wave bridge rectifier. The rectified voltage is next applied to the

power factor correction (PFC) pre-regulator followed by the downstream

DC-DC converter(s).

Note that except for PCs and CompactPCI systems, PSU output connectors and pinouts in general are not

standardized and are left up to the manufacturers.

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F1 and F2 shown on the left of the circuit diagram are fuses. Everybody knows about them, but many people are under

impression that a fuse blow immediately once applied current exceeds its rating. If that was true, no PSU would

function because of momentary "in-rush" currents. In reality, a fuse is designed to physically open the circuit when the

current being drawn through it exceeds its rating for a certain period of time. This clearing time depends on the degree

of overload and is a function of I2t. Due to this delay, fuses will not always protect electronic components from a
catastrophic failure caused by some fault conditions. Their main purpose is to protect the upstream line from

overloading and overheating, avoid tripping of an external circuit breaker, and prevent a fire that may be triggered by

components that failed into a short circuit.

The low-pass EMI filter is designed to reduce high frequency currents getting into the AC line to an acceptable level.

This is necessary to prevent interference on the other devices connected to the same electrical wiring. There is a

number of standards (such as EN55022 for Information Technology equipment) that govern the maximum level of EMI.

The filter is followed by the rectifier that converts bipolar AC waveforms to unipolar pulsating ones. It has four diodes in

a bridge arrangement to provide the same polarity of the output for both polarities of the input.

PFC regulator. The rectified input voltage is fed into the next stage,
whose prime purpose is to increase power factor (PF). By definition, PF

is the ratio between watts and volt-amps. In the process, the PFC pre-

regulator usually boosts the voltage to 370-400 VDC. There are also

designs where "boost" DC-link follows the peak of input AC voltage

instead of being fixed, or where a buck converter is used instead of a

boost.

There are two main types of power factor correction circuits- active and

passive. Below is a block-diagram of an active PFC stage. Here is how it

works. A controller monitors both the voltage across sense resistor and

Vboost. While regulating Vboost, it controls at the same time the shape
of the input current, so that it is in phase with mains AC and repeats its

waveform. Without this, the current would be delivered to the SMPS in

short high level pulses, which have a high harmonic content. The

harmonics do not supply any real energy to the load, but cause additional heating in the wiring and distribution

equipment. They also reduce the maximum wattage that can be taken from a standard wall outlet, since circuit breakers

are rated by electric current rather than by watts. There are various regulations that limit the input harmonic content,
such as EN61000-3-2 (for equipment connected to public low-voltage distribution systems) or DO-160 (for airborne

equipment). To meet these requirements you can use a PF correction technique: a device with a high PF draws a

nearly sinusoidal current from the source (at a sinusoidal input). This automatically results in low harmonic content.

Currently there are no mandatory international standards that specifically regulate the PF of an electronic equipment,

but there are various national and industry standards as well as voluntary incentive programs. For example, 80 PLUS

and Energy Star programs require computers to demonstrate PF >0.9 at rated load. You can read about active power
factor correction in this PFC guide.
The above standards also specify minimum efficiency of certain classes of electronic devices. The efficiency of a PSU

by definition is the ratio between the values of output and input wattage: Efficiency=Pout/Pin. Note that because
Pin=VA*PF and since any real active circuit has PF<1, you can't just multiply input volts and amps- to measure Pin you

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9/12/13 Power Supply Tutorial- SMPS
need a true wattmeter.

The DC-DC converter runs off the PFC output,

generates a set of DC busses required for the load,

and normally also provides input-to-output isolation.

There are a number of topologies utilized in DC-DC

converters. The above block diagram depicts an

isolating forward converter. Most low-voltage non-

isolated converters use buck regulators (single or

interleaved multi-phase). There is likewise a large

variety of PWM ICs suitable for each of these

topologies. The selection of the right power topology

depends on specific requirements for the product

(including cost and time factors).

Finally, the housekeeping supply provides bias for all control circuitry. It may

also provide a separate stand-by voltage (SBV) which remains active when the

PS unit is shut down for any reason. In today's computer power supply a 5VDC

SBV is a standard feature.

seminar
If you want to learn practical PSU design, you may start with Unitrode

books, where you can find a comprehensive collection of power supply tutorials,
references, practical schematic diagrams, and guides. You may also read SMPS

design reference manual with application notes on basic regulators.

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