DC Power Supply

Eng. Nader Taleb

Fall 2021
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 Exp #3
DC power Supply
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Objectives:
• Design and construct circuits that transform sinusoidal (AC) voltages into constant
(DC) voltages.
• Evaluate the performance of simple rectifier and regulator circuits.

Theory:
DC power supplies are the essential part of most of the electronic equipments since
most of the equipments need DC power for operation. The power which is readily
available everywhere is AC (in Gaza 220V/50Hz). DC power supplies convert this AC
power into DC that can be used to operate most of our equipments. The main
components of a DC power supply are rectifier diodes and capacitors. As you have seen
in the last lab that rectifier diodes under normal condition can conduct only in the
forward direction. This property of diodes is used to remove (or invert) the negative
cycle of the AC voltage so that we have uni-directional voltage but not a constant one.
Further, capacitors are used to smooth out this varying unidirectional voltage and make
it as smooth as possible, since capacitor tries to resist the change in its induced voltage,
a suitable value of capacitor or a combination of capacitors are used to smooth out the
change in the uni-directional voltage and make it constant. The output of the power
supply is a fairly smooth DC voltage.

There are 4 main operation stages to most power supplies:

• Transformer (step down the voltage)
• Rectification (convert AC to pulsating DC)
• Filtering (Smooth pulsating DC to reduce peaks and raise valleys)
• Regulation (Control output voltage level to make it robust against input voltage
fluctuations and load changes)

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1- Transformer:
• The power transformer provides separate windings to isolate the primary and
secondary circuits. Isolation is necessary for safety considerations. Bizarre
accidents are possible with non-isolated systems.
• A transformer also provides line voltage step down or up as needed by the DC power
supply. Using a transformer, voltages can be transformed from one level to another
with minimum power loss.
• All transformers have a voltage rating, frequency rating, and volt-ampere rating,
which is the maximum power (real or imaginary) that the secondary can deliver to
a load. This rating is a function of the physical size of the iron core. Ideally, the load
is resistive and the volt-ampere rating then represents the power in watts.

2- Rectification:
• The rectification process uses diodes to permit current from the transformer in one
direction and block reverse current. The alternating current thus becomes
unidirectional current known as DC. At this point, the current is in pulses rather than
being continuous and smooth. But there is only one direction of the current thus it
is DC. There are three types of rectifier circuits; half-wave, full-wave center-tap,
and full-wave bridge.
• Although we can use four individual power diodes to make a full wave bridge
rectifier, pre-made bridge rectifier components are available "off-the-shelf" in a
range of different voltage and current sizes that can be soldered directly into a PCB
circuit board or be connected by spade connectors. The image to the following
figure shows a typical single phase bridge rectifier with one corner cut off. This cut-
off corner indicates that the terminal nearest to the corner is the positive or +ve
output terminal or lead with the opposite (diagonal) lead being the negative or -ve
output lead. The other two connecting leads are for the input alternating voltage
from a transformer secondary winding.

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3- The Smoothing Capacitor:
• Pulsating DC voltages are generally not useful for electronics. It is preferred to have
a relatively constant DC voltage. The filter is frequently just a large capacitance to
smooth the raw voltage fluctuations from the rectifier. More advanced designs will
include a series inductor in addition to the capacitor for significantly improved
filtering and also for improved efficiency in the rectification process.
• The filter capacitance is usually of the electrolytic type in order to keep the physical
size to a minimum. The smoothing capacitor converts the full-wave rippled output
of the rectifier into a smooth DC output voltage. Two important parameters to
consider when choosing a suitable a capacitor are working Voltage, which must be
higher than the no-load output value of the rectifier and Capacitance Value, which
determines the amount of ripple that will appear superimposed on top of the DC
voltage. Too low value and the capacitor has little effect. As a general rule of thumb,
we are looking to have a ripple voltage of less than 100mV peak to peak.

4- Voltage Regulator:
• While filters can reduce the ripple from power supplies to a low value, the most
effective approach is a combination of a capacitor –input filter used with a voltage
regulator. A voltage regulator is connected to the output of a filtered rectifier and
maintains a constant output voltage despite changes in the input, the load current,
or the temperature. The capacitor-input filter reduces the input ripple to the regulator
to an acceptable level.
• Most regulators are integrated circuits and have three terminal –an input terminal,
an output terminal, and a reference terminal. The input to the regulator is first
filtered with a capacitor to reduce the ripple to <10%.the regulator reduces the ripple
to a negligible amount. In addition, most regulators have an internal voltage
reference, short circuit protection. Some common voltages that these are available
for include +5, +12, +15, -5, -12, and-15. Three-terminal regulators designed for
fixed output voltages require only external capacitors to complete the regulation
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 portion of the power supply. Filtering is accomplished by a large value capacitor
between the input voltage and ground. An output capacitor (typically 0.1 μF to 1μF)
is connected from output to ground to improve the transient response.

Ripple factor:
The ripple factor is an indication of the effectiveness of a filter and is defined as:

where V r(pp) is the peak-to-peak ripple voltage and V Dc is the dc (average) value of
the filter's output voltage. the lower the ripple factor, the better the filter is. the ripple
factor can be lowered by increasing the value of the filter capacitor.

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Surge Current in Capacitor Input Filter
When the power is first applied to a power supply, the filter capacitor is uncharged. At
the instant the switch is closed, voltage is connected to the rectifier and the uncharged
capacitor appears as a short. An initial surge of current is produced through the forward-
biased diodes. It is possible that the surge current could destroy the diodes, for this
reason a surge-limiting resistor R surge, is sometimes connected. The value of this resistor
must be small to avoid a significant voltage drop across it. The diode must have a
forward current rating that can handle the momentary surge of current. This rating is
specified in the datasheet of the diode as IFSM

Worksheet
• Study the effect of the capacitor.
1- Connect the circuit as shown in the following figure.
2- Set the input (220V, 50Hz), the inductance of transformer (1H, 2.875 mH) and
resistance 1KΩ.
3- Change the value of C1: 100nF, 1μF, 100 μF, 470 μF.
4- For every value compute the ripple factor and find the output voltage.

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 • Study the effect of regulator.

Repeat the previous steps with presence of regulator as shown below.

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