Circuits & Schematics Power - 9

Dan Meeks EDN This Design Idea is a solid state relay (SSR) which uses a triac to switch AC loads at high current. There are plenty of simple SSR circuits available, but this may be the simplest circuit that achieves turn-on and turn-off only when ...

Alfredo Saab EDN Sensors, electrostatic traps, and other applications require regulated, high-voltage power supplies that deliver modest amounts of output current. Simplicity, low quiescent current, and compactness are desirable in such supplies. ...

Mike Wong, Intersil EDN Assume that a design requires positive voltage, but only a negative-voltage power source is available. Using a standard boost-converter IC in the circuit of Figure 1, you can efficiently generate a positive voltage from a ...

Mike Rose EDN Using the fast dynamic load described in this Design Idea to test the transient response of a power system can reveal many critical operating characteristics. The voltage deviation resulting from a fast current step can provide ...

Tom Gross, Linear Technology Design Note 511 Introduction The LTC3626 synchronous buck regulator with current and temperature monitoring is the first of Linear’s SWITCHER+™ line of monolithic regulators. It is a high efficiency, ...

Ilija Uzelac EDN This Design Idea presents a simple, proven, reliable, and robust method for charging large capacitor banks, using a series connection of power MOSFETs to raise the breakdown voltage over that of an individual MOSFET. When a power ...

To measure high levels of direct current for overload detection and protection, designers frequently use either a current-shunt resistor or a toroidal core and Hall-effect magnetic-field sensor. Both methods suffer from drawbacks. For example, ...

Introduction A common problem in power distribution systems is loss of regulation due to the cable/wire voltage drop between the regulator and the load. Any increase in wire resistance, cable length or load current increases the voltage drop over ...

Vladimir Rentyuk EDN Most engineers know that they can use an inexpensive, three-terminal adjustable regulator, such as Fairchild Semiconductor’s LM317 , as an adjustable regulator to only some necessary value of voltage, such as 36 or 3 V. ...

Sajjad Haidar Electronic Design When a MOSFET or IGBT gate-threshold voltage is higher than the available drive voltage, it's standard to use an op amp or other driver to bridge the difference. This circuit uses a basic optocoupler plus a few ...