The design of Switched Mode Power Supply or SMPS is fairly complex when compared to

linear regulated power supply. But this complexity in design has an advantage as it will result
in stable and regulated DC supply that is capable of delivering more power in an efficient
way for a given physical specification (size, weight and cost).

. The main design types in SMPS are:

 AC to DC, where AC mains is given as input and we get a regulated DC at the output,
 DC to DC Step up converter, where an input DC voltage is stepped up i.e. output
voltage is greater than input and
 DC to DC Step down converter, where the input DC voltage is stepped down i.e.
output voltage is less than or equal to input voltage.

In case of DC to DC SMPS systems, the input DC is usually given from a battery and hence,
both the DC to DC converter circuits (Step up and Step down) are commonly found in battery
operated systems.

Coming back to SMPS design in the above image, it represents a typical AC to DC converter.
We will see the basic working of this SMPS design. The input AC supply is given to rectifier
and filter circuits. This step will convert the High Voltage AC to High Voltage DC.

This high voltage DC is given to a High Speed Switching Element like a Power MOSFET.
The output of this switch, which is a High Frequency, High Voltage Pulsating AC, is given to
a High Frequency Step down Transformer.

The output of this transformer is a Low Voltage AC signal which is in turn given to a rectifier
and a filter circuit to obtain Low Voltage DC.

SMPS Topologies

Non – isolated Converters are a type of SMPS Topology where the switching circuit and
output are not isolated i.e. they have a common terminal. The three basic and important types
in Non – isolated SMPS are:

 Buck Converter or Step – down Converter

 Boost Converter or Step – up Converter
 Buck – Boost Converter

There are other non – isolated SMPS designs like Switched Capacitors, Cuk Converter and
SEPIC Converter but these three types are very important. They are the simplest of SMPS
designs and use a single inductor as an energy storing element and two switches, out of which
one is an active switch (a Transistor – Power MOSFET) while the other can be a diode.
The output voltage can be higher (Boost or Step – up) or lower (Buck or Step – down) and
can be controlled by the duty cycle of the high frequency square wave (that is applied to the
switch). One main drawback of Non – isolated Topology is that the efficiency of the switches
falls as the duty cycle is reduced. Isolated Topology will suit better for larger voltage
changes.

Isolated Topology in SMPS uses a transformer as an isolator between the switching element
and output. Depending on the transformer’s turns ratio, the output voltage can be higher or
lower than the input. Transformer based SMPS topologies can be designed to generate
multiple output voltage by using multiple windings at the transformer.

The energy storage element can be transformers secondary winding or a separate inductor.
The two important Isolated Topology based SMPS converters are:

 Flyback Converter
 Forward Converter

Some of the other commonly used isolated SMPS topologies are Half – bridge, Full – bridge,
Push – Pull, Half – Forward, Isolated Cuk, etc.