UNIT IV

6.5 SWITCHING REGULATOR

The regulated power supplies discussed so far are referred to as linear voltage regulator
since the series pass transistor operates in the linear region. The
linear voltage regulator has
the following limitations.
The input stepdown transformer is bulky and the most expensive component of the linear
regulated power supply mainly because of low line frequency (50 Hz). Because of the low line
frequency, large values of filter capacitors are required ripple. The efficiency
to decrease the
must be
of a series regulator 1s usually very low (typically 50 percent). The input voltage
greater than the output voltage. The greater
the difference in input-output voltage, more will
in the active region.
be the pOwer dissipated in the s e r i e s pass transistor which is always
50 percent efficiency
ATTL system regulator (V, =5V) when operated at 1OV dc input gives
a system with one dc
and only 25 percent for 20V dc input. Another limitation is that in
15V for op-amp operation, it may
supply voltage (such as + 5V for TTL) if there is need for t
not be economically and practically feasible to
achieve this.
overcome these difficulties. The switching regulator,
also
Switched mode power supplies
different way from that of a
called switched mode regulator operate in a significantly
series regulator, the pass transistor
conventional series regulator circuit discussed earlier. In
1s operated in its linear region to provide a
controlled voltage drop across it with a steady
de current flow. Whereas, in the case of switched-mode regulator,
the pass transistor is used
as a "controlled switch" and is operated at
either cutoff or saturated state. Hence the power
rather than as a steady current flow.
transmitted a c r o s s the pass device is in discrete pulses
is operated as a low impedance switch.
Greater efficiency is achieved since the pass device
current and dissipates no power. Again when
When the pass device is at cutoff, there is no
across it and thus dissipates
thepass deviceis in saturation, a negligible voltage drop appears
m a x i m u m current to the load. In either
Only asmall amount of average power, providing
case, the power wasted in the pass device
is very little and almost all the power is transmitted
1s remarkably high-in the range
to the load. Thus efficiency in switched mode power supply
of 70-90%.
Switched mode regulators rely on pulse
wdth
modulation to control the average value of
a repetitive pulse waveform depends on the area
the output voltage. The average value of
 under the waveform. If the duty V
cycle is varied as shown 10
in Fig. 6.12, the
average value of the voltage changes
proportionally. 5
50V
A switching
power supply is shown in Fig. 6.13. The
bridge rectifier and capacitor filters are connected directly on time- 100 t(us)
Period
to the ac line to
give unregulated dc input. The thermistor
R limits the high initial capacitor charge current. The
reference regulator is a series pass regulator of the type 10
shown in Fig. 6.1. Its output is a
regulated reference
voltage Vref which serves as a power supply voltage for
all other circuits. The current drawn
from Vret is usually
25 25 100 t(us)
very small (~ 10 mA), so the power loss in the series
10
pass regulator
does not affect the overall efficiency of
7.5 --

the switched mode power

supply (SMPS). Transistors 1
and are alternately switched
These transistors
off and on at 20 kHz.
are either fully 75 100 t(us)
on (VCE sat 0.2V) or
cut-off, so they dissipate very little power. These Fig. 6.12 Pulse width modulation
transistors drive the primary of the main transformer. and average value
The secondary is centre-tapped and full wave
rectification
is achieved by diodes
D and D,. This unidirectional square wave is next filtered througha
two stage LC filter to
produce output voltage Vo
The regulation of V, is achieved
by the feedback circuit consisting of a pulse-width modulator
nd steering logic circuit. The
output voltage V, is sampled by a RR2 divider and a fraction
Input rectifier
andfilter
Mainpower
ac in
w transformer Output rectifier/filter
50
- RT V
dc
Output

a
Flip V osc
Reference Flop 40kHz
voltage 40kHz
s vi regulator triangular e
waveform
VA2 generatoor
PWM

Vref
-

Voontrol
Steering logic circuit
Sample
Voltage comparisonR
amplifier
Fig. 6.13 A switched mode power supply
 Triangular waveform
Veontrol
Triangular
wave 40kHz

PWM's output va
b

40kHz vosC

20kHzVa d

20kHzVa
e

Drive for Q,
20kHzVA1

Drive for Q,
20kHz VA2 9
a-ON Q-ON
Switched
waveform at
OFF OFF OFF OFF
transformer h
primary
Q-ON a-ON

Vp

Fig. 6.14 Switching power supply waveforms

R/(R+R) is compared with a fixed reference voltage Vret in comparator 1. The output of this
voltage comparison amplitier is called Vcontrol and is shown in Fig. 6.14 (a). Vcontrol is applied
tothe input terminal of comparator 2 and a triangular waveform of frequency 40 kHz
(also showm in Fig. 6.14 (a)) is applied at the () input terminal. It may be noted that a high
frequency triangular waveform is being used to reduce the ripple. The comparator 2 functions
as a pulse width modulator and its output is a square wave
vA (Fig. 6.14 (b)) of period Tf
40 kHz). The duty cycle of the square wave is Ti/(Ti + T) and varies with Vcontrol which
in turn varies with the variation of u. The output ua drives a steering logic circuit shown
in the dashed block. It consists of a 40 kHz oscillator cascaded with a flip-flop to produce
wo complementary outputs vQ and vg shown in Pig. 6.14 (d) and (e). The output UAI and
Aa of AND gates A, and A, are shown in Fig. 6.10 (6 and (g). These waveforms are applied
at the base of transistor Q and Q2. Depending upon whether transistor Q, or Q, is on, the
waveform at the input of the transformer will be a square wave as shown in Fig. 6.14 h).
Lne rectified
output Ug is shown in Fig. 6.14 ().
 An inspection of Fig. 6.13 shows that the output current passes throughthe power switch
consisting of transistors Q and Qa, inductor having low resistance and the load. Hence using ng
a
switch with low losses (transistor with small VeE (aat) and high switching speed) and a
filter
with high quality factor, the conversion efficiency can easily exceed s
If there is a rise in de output voltage Vo, the voltage control Vcontrol ot the
with
comparator
the triangular waveform and in
1
uso rises. Thischanges the intersection of the Vcontrol
this case decreases the time period 7, in the waveform of Fig.
the pulse
6.14
(6).
This in
turn

width of the waveform driving the main power transformer. Reduction in pulse
decreases

width lowers the average value of the de output V. Thus the initial rise in the de output
voltage V, has been nullified.
shall be able to justify why
So far we have discussed the operation of the SMPS. Now
we

SMPS has better efficiency than linear regulated power supply. We have noted that very high
frequency signals (about 40 kHz or more) are being applied. The transistors Q and
are acting as the switches and become alternately on and off at a frequency of 20 kHz
and consumes
(ig. 6.14 (a)). Again the transistor Q, or Q is on for very small duration
be noted that the high
negligibly small power since Ver(nth (0.2V) is small. It may also
the of smaller transformers,
operating frequency used for the switching transistors allows
use

capacitors and inductors. This allows a decrease in size and cost.

There are some limitations and precautions to be taken with switching power supplies
Since the rectifier is tied directly to the ac line voltage, the rectifiers, capacitors and switching
220 V ac rms line). The
transistors must be able to withstand the peak line voltage (310 V for
resistor R, must be provided to prevent the uncharged capacitors
from shorting out the line
and requires external
when initially turned on. A switched mode power supply is more complex
to transient load changes
components like inductors and transformers. It is slow in responding
be careful about the electromagnetic
compared to the conventional series regulator. One should
mode power supply.
and radio-frequency interference while using switched
As c a n be seen, the switching regulator system is quite
a complex one. However, with
The Motorola MC 3420/3520 is
modern microelectronics, quite a few packages are available.
General SG 1524 produces an IC package
a pulse width modulator IC chip. The Silicon
modulator (consisting of s a w tooth oscillator and
containing reference regulator, pulse width
and Q2, the steering flip-flop and two AND gates.
comparator), comparator 1, transistors
Specifications of A/D and D/A converter