Chapter 7

Power Supplies

Electricity can be dangerous. My nephew tried to stick a penny into a plug. Whoever said a penny doesn’t go far didn’t see him shoot across that floor. I told him he was grounded.—Tim Allen

A power supply can be thought of as a power converter; its job is to convert the line level AC power to another form that is more useable for the load with as little loss as possible. Albert Einstein taught us that energy can be neither created nor destroyed; it can only change forms. A power supply’s main function is to convert electrical energy from a certain voltage, current, and frequency to electrical energy with a different voltage, current, and frequency. Except for the losses due to the inefficiencies of the components, energy ...

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