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DC Variable Voltage Power Supply (Oct 2011)

Paul M. DeMarco, EE Undergraduate, University at Buffalo
AbstractIn modern day electronics, there is often a need to alter the available power supply before it can be used for a device. This alteration usually consists of scaling the original signal, followed by an AC-to-DC conversion. This process can cause power loss, and different techniques have been developed with the advantage of higher efficiency. The switched-mode power supply (SMPS) regulates output voltage by switching storage elements (inductors or capacitors) in and out of the circuit. The ratio of the on and off state (duty cycle) ultimately determines the output voltage. This increases complexity of the circuit, but also allows for more lightweight designs and a much higher efficiency than that of a linear power supply. An older technique in contrast is the linear power supply, where the excess voltage is not stored in a component but rather dissipated as heat in ohmic losses. The complete process consists of a transformer, rectifier, filter and regulator. This linear process will be recreated with reported results after each stage is implemented. After the complete circuit is built, the power efficiency is tested by taking voltage and current measurements from the input and output points. Index Termsduty cycle, rectifier, regulator, switched-mode power supply, -filter

Fig. 1. Full-wave rectifier in a bridge configuration.

Using the oscillator we obtained this voltage waveform at the load:

Fig. 2. A rectified alternating current.

I. INTRODUCTION

The rectified pulse will have a voltage peak equal to the source voltage peak subtracted by 2 diode voltage drops (0.7V for ordinary silicon diodes).

HIS experiment will examine a linear DC variable voltage power supply. Results will be reported at the different stages of the power supply (rectifier, filter, and regulator). We will then study the specific components and the effect they have on the final voltage output. After optimizing the values for different components, a procedure to measure the power efficiency will be developed and reported. Lastly, in contrast to the examined linear power supply, we will discuss how a switched-mode power supply can be more compact and efficient.

(Bridge rectifier voltage peak)

B. Filter A filter consisting of capacitors and resistors will now be used to smooth the pulsating direct voltage. Here is the rectifier circuit diagram from above with a -filter added:

II. PROCEDURE FOR LINEAR POWER SUPPLY A. Rectifier The first step for an AC-DC conversion is to rectify the alternating current. This rectification process will take alternating current, which periodically reverses direction, and convert it to a pulsating direct current, which flows in one direction. After adjusting a transformer to step-down the 120V AC signal to 9V AC, we built the rectifier circuit as follows.
Manuscript received October 27, 2011. P. M. DeMarco is with the University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260 USA (e-mail: pauldema@buffalo.edu). Fig. 3. Full-wave rectifier with -filter attached

We would now like to examine the dependence of DC Voltage and AC ripple voltage against the load current. As we changed the values of RL we plotted the effect of each.

DC Voltage vs. Load Current

12 DC Voltage (V) 500

AC Ripple vs. R3/R2

AC Ripple (V)

10 8 6 4 2 0 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 Load Current (A) 0.08 0.1

400 300 200 100 0 0 2 4 6 R3/R2 8 10 12

AC Ripple Voltage vs. Load Current

3 AC Ripple (V) 2.5

2
1.5 1 0.5 0

0.02

0.04 0.06 Load Current (A)

0.08

0.1

From the above plots, we observe that as the load current increases (RL decreased), the DC voltage decreases while the AC ripple voltage increases.

Fig. 5. Oscilloscope screen captures of voltage out for different values of R3. Read from left to right: R3 = 0, 1k, 3.3k, 5.6k, 10k. Note that ripple occurs at a high value of R3.

R3/R2 0 1

V-in (DC) 11.343 11.285 11.149 11.069 11.049 11.048 11.047 11.035

V-out 1.2485 2.511 5.438 8.3588 9.435 9.443 9.554 9.77

Ripple (mVpp) 0 0 0 0 0 0 94.6 401

C. Regulator A regulator is added to further stabilize the output voltage.

3.3 5.6 6 6.3 6.4 10

Fig. 4. Linear regulator LM317 attached after -filter

The resistors R2 and R3 can control the output voltage. We observe the dependence of output voltage as a function of R3/R2.

12 10 V-out (V)

Output Voltage vs. R3/R2

From the above plot and accompanying table, we can see that the minimum output voltage (R3=0) is 1.2485V. The maximum output voltage before any AC ripple occurs is 9.443V, for which the input voltage to the LM317 is 11.048V. This means that a minimum voltage drop of 11.048V-9.443V = 1.605V is required by the IC (LM317K) to function properly. Now constraining R3/R2 to give a solid output of 5V, we would like to observe the effect of changing the load resistor RL. We take more measurements to see if there is any effect on AC Ripple and DC Voltage. The following plots were rendered.

8
6 4 2 0 0 2 4 6 R3/R2 8 10 12

3 configurations. Ideal switching elements have no resistance when closed and carry no current when open, they can theoretically deliver 100% of the power to the load. Without the need for a transformer, the switched-mode power supply is much more compact. IV. CONCLUSION We have fully examined the various stages of the linear power supply; consisting of the rectifier, filter, and regulator. It was also shown that by manipulating the R3/R2 ratio of the regulators voltage divider, we can alter the output voltage. This did surface some restraints though, such as the required minimum voltage-drop of 1.6V for the LM317 to function properly. After completing our analysis and setting the output at a solid 5V, we adjusted the load resistance to obtain a current of 100mA. From here we examined our power efficiency by taking the load dissipation divided by the input power. This inefficient result led us to discussing better alternatives, such as the switched-mode power supply, which is not only more efficient (>90%) but is also more light-weight and compact.

AC Ripple vs. Load Current

0.1 0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0 0 20 40 60 Load Current (mA) AC Ripple (V)

6 5 DC Voltage (V) 4 3 2 1 0 0

DC Voltage vs. Load Current

REFERENCES 20 40 Load Current (mA) 60

[1] [2] [3] Basso, Christophe (2008), Switch-Mode Power Supplies: SPICE Simulations and Practical Designs, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0071508589 Luo, Fang Lin; Ye, Hong (2004), Advanced DC/DC Converters, CRC Press, ISBN 0-8493-1956-0 Rashid, Muhammad H. (2003), Power Electronics: Circuits, Devices, and Applications, Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-122815-3 Mohan, Ned; Undeland, Tore M.; Robbins, William P. (2002), Power Electronics : Converters, Applications, and Design, Wiley, ISBN 0-47122693-9

It is obvious that the voltage is consistent with variable load. D. Power Efficiency Power efficiency is defined as the ratio of the power dissipated in the load versus the input power. For this power supply we can take the input power as delivered by the fullwave rectifier and the output power as the dissipation in heat by RL (P = V*I). Here is a table of those measured values:

[4]

RL Voltage (V) Current (A) Power (W) 5.1 0.102 0.5202

LM317K V-in Voltage (V) 9.63 Current (A) 0.08419 Power (W) 0.8107497

III. DISCUSSION OF LINEAR VS SWITCHING POWER SUPPLY The linear power supply as examined above is very inefficient, since it sheds the difference voltage as dissipating heat. A switching, or switched-mode power supply regulates output voltage by switching storage components in and out of