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Chapter 1
forced air cooling is not a problem; and also those applications in which the instrument is
so sensiti
ve to electrical noise that it requires an electrically “ quiet ” power supply—these
products might include audio and video amplifi ers, RF receivers, and so forth. Linear
regulators are also popular as local, board-level regulators. Here only a few watts are
needed by the board, so the few watts of loss can be accommodated by a simple heatsink.
If dielectric isolation is desired from an AC input power source, it is provided by an AC
transformer or bulk power supply.
In general, the linear regulator is quite useful ...