Power Supplies

There are many types of power supply. Most are designed to convert high voltage AC mains electricity to a suitable low voltage supply for electronics circuits and other devices. A power supply can by broken down into a series of blocks, each of which performs a particular function.

For example a 5V regulated supply:



Each of the blocks is described in more detail below:

* Transformer - steps down high voltage AC mains to low voltage AC.
* Rectifier - converts AC to DC, but the DC output is varying.
* Smoothing - smooths the DC from varying greatly to a small ripple.
* Regulator - eliminates ripple by setting DC output to a fixed voltage.

Power supplies made from these blocks are described below with a circuit diagram and a graph of their output:

* Transformer only
* Transformer + Rectifier
* Transformer + Rectifier + Smoothing
* Transformer + Rectifier + Smoothing + Regulator

Also See: AC and DC | Diodes | Capacitors