Welcome to this installment of EE Classroom on Power Supply Fundamentals.

What could be more basic in electronics than power? Long, long gone are the days of “bolting on” a power supply at the tail end of a design. Because today’s power supplies go behind basic functions and performance and fewer engineers are designing power supplies from scratch, broadening your knowledge of both analog and power design – and test and measurement – requires an ongoing education just to keep up with this 100-year old evolving technology.

Never designed a power supply? Thinking of “buy” and not “make”? Need to expand your existing repertoire of knowledge? Then you have come to the right Classroom. From the basics of troubleshooting power supplies to understanding the changing landscape of power supply standards, CUI Inc and EE World Online have got you covered. Too much noise? Learn more about the how, why, and how-to's. Whether you are a power electronics, power systems, electronic design or electric power systems engineer, take this opportunity to enhance your understanding of the fundamentals curated just for you. 

Editor in Chief, EE World Online

The changing maze of power supply standards

Basics of troubleshooting power supplies

Basics of power supply self protection

Choosing an integration level for power supply functions

There are some protection features built into most power supplies to ensure that they do not “self-destruct” or damage associated circuitry.

Brexit altered the landscape of standards for power supply products. Here’s an update on the latest revisions.

When a piece of equipment turns up completely dead, one of the first things to look at is the power supply.

Since the first application of the wheel, an element of all practical engineering projects has been the make-or-buy decision. 

Power supply noise: The beginning

Power supply noise: Noise sources

Principles of GaN power devices

Applications of GaN power devices

A focus on noise beginning with the system’s AC/DC supply, although many of the points apply to DC/DC supplies.

There are two noise sources which are not as obvious to many engineers: differential and common-mode.

A look at the basic functional principles of devices based on GaN and the rationale for using them.

A significant challenge to using a GaN device is how to drive it properly.

Transformer less AC to DC power supply

How to design a regulated power supply

Basic Electronics: Different types of power supplies

When low currents are needed to be drawn by the load circuit, X-rated non-polarity capacitors can also be used for AC to DC conversion.

Step-by-step including which components should be chosen to have required regulated output voltage with required current.

A basic understanding of power supplies — what gives life to any electronic circuit or device.