POWER SUPPLIES AND REGULATORS

yayavaram@yahoo.com Introduction: It is a known fact that all the electronic circuits work well with DC supply . The DC voltage supply required by these electronic circuits is normally derived by transforming and rectifying the standard or industrial AC supply. The voltage obtained by this method is not sufficiently stable and contains unwanted ripple.So,the DC voltage regulator circuits are employed to stabilize the voltage and attenuate the ripple. All the voltage regulators use a zener diode as astable reference voltage source.A zener diode with a series resistor can be used as a simple low current voltage regulator.By adding a series transistor a large load current can be supplied.the performance of the regulator can be further improved when an error amplifier is added. Types of Power supplies : There are two major types of power supplies : (i) Regulated power supplies and (ii)Unregulated power supplies. Regulated power supplies are further devided into linearly regulated power

supplies and switch mode power supplies.The classification is shown below.

Unregulated power supplies are primarily used for simple electromechanical applications that do not require exact output voltages.

The efficiency of linearly regulated power supplies is only approx. 50 % due to the high losses inside the power transistor. The remaining energy is emitted in the form of heat. Due to this,suffi cient ventilation is required to cool the power supply. Compared with unregulated power supplies, linearly regulated power supplies have a very small residual ripple of the output voltage (in the dimension of millivolts). Linearly regulated power supplies are used for all applications that require a very exact output voltage, e.g. for highly precise medical devices.

Bipolar and Two- value Unregulated Power Supplies. Certain electronic devices require both positive and negative supply voltages.These voltages are measured w.r.t a common terminal (ground) .These positive and negative voltages are obtained using a centre tap transformer.So, the Bipolar unregulated power supply consists of a a centre rtapped transformer , a rectifier, and a filter as shown in the circuit below.

The step-down transformer gives a voltage of 12 V w.r.t centre tap and both the no load voltages are 1.41 x 12V rms = 17V.The bridge rectifier circuit converts the AC into suitable DC.This DC is filtered by the capacitors C1 and C2 and the voltage across the load resistors(RL) is measured w.r.t common terminal(CT).At the output we can get two voltages .Hence it is called a two value unregulated power supply. For this circuit, regulation is very poor. As the load varies, the output-voltage must remain constant, for good regulation. But this is not true for unregulated power supply circuit. The

limitations of unregulated power supply are: Poor regulation ,DC output varies directly as the AC input varies, In simple rectifiers and filter circuits, the DC output voltage varies with temperature also, if semiconductor devices are used. BIPOLAR UNREGULATED SUPPLIES Using the unregulated bridge rectifier circuit we can also get Bi-polar voltages also.In such circuits w.r.t the common terminal one end will give positive voltage and the other end will give negative voltage as shown in the circuit

Since this circuit gives both positive and negative voltages at the output w.r.t common terminal it is called bipolar supply.

2.Two value positive supply

. 3.Two Value negative supply. The circuits in figures 2 and 3 shows the two value positive and two value negative supplies. Need for voltage Regulation : Ideally, the output of a power supply should always be constant because if the supply voltage changes, the operation of the circuit is adversely affected. But unfortunately, the output of most of the power supplies is not constant .This is due to the fact that , the ac line voltage is not constant and it varies between 180 to 250 volts. The ac line voltage alone can be responsible for nearly a 20 percent change in the dc output voltage. The second factor that can change the dc output voltage is a change in the load resistance. In complex electronic equipment, the load can change as circuits are switched in and out. In a television receiver, the load on a particular power supply may depend on the brightness of the screen, the control settings, or even the channel selected. These variations in load resistance tend to change the applied dc voltage because the power supply has a fixed internal resistance. If the load resistance decreases, the internal resistance of the power supply drops more voltage. This causes a decrease in the voltage across the load. Hence to overcome the problems due to the changes in the output voltage we need a voltage regulator which takes unregulated supply and gives a stable DC output voltage .i.e the output of a regulator must be reasonably constant regardless of variations in the input voltage and with varying load currents. Voltage Regulators : Voltage Regulator Circuits are electronic circuits which give constant DC output voltage, irrespective of variations in Input Voltage Vi, current drawn by the load IL from output terminals, and Temperature T. The term voltage regulator is used when the output

delivered is DC voltage. The input can be DC which is not constant and fluctuating also. If the input is AC, it is converted to DC by Rectifier and Filter circuits and given to Voltage Regulator circuit, to get constant DC output voltage. Note: The term Voltage Stabilizer is used, if the output voltage is AC and not DC. The circuits used for voltage stabilizers are different from voltage regulators. Two types of voltage regulations are defined for a circuit. They are line regulation and load regulation. The purpose of line regulation is to maintain a nearly constant output voltage when the input voltage varies. The purpose of load regulation is to maintain a nearly constant output voltage when load varies Line Regulation : Line regulation is defined as the percentage change in the output voltage for a given change in the input (line) voltage. When taken over a range of input voltage values, line regulation is expressed as a percentage. = ( / )100 % Load Regulation : Load regulation is defined as the percentage change in output voltage for a given change in load current. It can be expressed as a percentage change in output voltage from no-load (NL) to full load (FL). oad = ( / ) 100% Alternately, the load regulation can be expressed as a percentage change in output voltage for each mA change in load current. For example, a load regulation of 0.01 %/mA means that the output voltage changes 0.01 percent when the load current increases or decreases 1 mA. Simple Op-Amp Regulator : This circuit consists of a zener diode ,an op-amp and a power transistor connected in series .Hence this transistor is also called series transistor or control element.Here the input to the circuit is the unregulated voltage.The op-amp is used as a comparator . Resistors R2 and R3as the voltage divider network which is used to sense any change at the output. The change sensed by the divider network is applied at the inverting input of the comparator.The zener diode

provides the reference voltage which is applied at the non-inverting input of the comparator.The output of the comparator is applied at the base of the series transistor . When the output voltage decreases because of the decrease in input voltage , the voltage drop across R2,R3 decreases and so this error voltage (-ve) is sensed by the divider network and is applied at the inverting terminal of the comparator. The comparator compares the reference constant voltage and the ve error voltage and provide the difference (+ve) of the two voltages at the output ,which in turn is applied to the base of the the series transistor . The transistor conduct according to the forward bias voltage at the base and so, the output voltage remain constant. When the output voltage tries to increase, the voltage sensed by the divider network is increased and this is applied at the inverting input of the comparator. The comparator provide the

difference (-ve) of the two voltage at the base of the transistor and so, the conduction of transistor decreases to the constant (required) voltage level.

So,the output voltage remains constant irrespective of the changes in the input voltage..Hence this circuit is called asimple op-amp based voltage regulator. Linear IC Voltage Regulators : A linear regulator is a system used to maintain a steady voltage. The resistance of the regulator varies in accordance with the load resulting in a constant output voltage. The regulating device is

made to act like a variable resistor, continuously adjusting a voltage divider network to maintain a constant output voltage, and continually dissipating the difference between the input and regulated voltages as waste heat.There are five basic linear regulator types; positive, negative, fixed output, tracking and floating regulators. Each has its own particular characteristics and best uses, and selection depends on the designers needs and tradeoffs in performance and cost. Linear IC voltage regulators use an active pass element to reduce the input voltage to the regulated output voltage. Some devices use bipolar transistors and others use metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETS). Linear IC voltage regulators are classified by four characteristics : (i).Polarity : negative , positive or dual tracking (ii).Terminal count: three terminal or multiterminal (iii).Fixed or adjustable output : Standard fixed voltages are 5, 12 and 15 V.Adjustable range is typically 1.2 to 37 V or -1.2 to 37 V. (iv) Output current : Typical output current capabilities are 0.1,0.2,0.25,0.5,1.5 and 3 A and also 5 and 10 A. The instantaneous voltage ,that is to be applied at the input of an IC regulator must be always higher than the output voltage of the regulator by an amount equal to 0.5 to 3 volts.This voltage is known as dropout voltage or simply headroom. The IC regulators have the feature called safe area protection which protects the IC from high overload currents. The IC regulators have the ripple rejection feature which is defined as the ratio of peak to peak input voltage to the peak to peak output ripple voltage.This is typically 60dB,which is a reduction of ripple voltage of atleast 1000:1. Three terminal fixed voltage Regulators : The most common linear regulators are threeterminal integrated circuits in the TO220 package. The 78xx series regulate positive voltages while the79xx series regulate negative voltages. For example 7805 is a +5 volts regulator and

7812 is a +12 volts regulator and 7824 is a +24 volts regulator. Similarly 7905 is a -5 volts regulator and 7912 is a -12 volts regulator and 7924 is a -24 volts regulator.By adding some components these ICs can be used to build reasonably good power supplies. LM 309 is a fixed 5V voltage regulator from National semiconductor Inc. It is similar to 7805 of Fairchild. 78xx series ICs have built-in protection against a circuit drawing too much power. They have protection against overheating and short-circuits, making them quite suitable in most applications. In some cases, the current-limiting features of the 78xx devices can provide protection not only for the 78xx itself, but also for other parts of the circuit. These three terminal regulators consists of three pins as shown in the figure below.

The pin 1 is the input and the pin2 is the output and the pin3 is the ground. C1 and C2 are required if regulator is located far from power supply filter and load, or oscillation may induced on the loop. The unregulated supply is connected between the pin1 and pin3 of the chip and the output is measured between the load and the common terminal(pin 3). The circuit below shows the LM7805 based 5 volts regulated power supply.The input can be between 7 to 35 volts and the output will be 5 volts regulated voltage.

The output is measured across the load resistor .This circuit is provided can handle maximum 1 ampere current and the noise is also low.

Similarly the LM7905 can be used to build a -5 volts power supply as shown below.This is also an example for three terminal voltage regulator.The 7905 gives a negative regulated DC voltage of 5 volts.

Power Supply for Logic circuits : The TTL ICs and certain digital chips like Microprocessors require a power supply whose output is +5 V DC.For these logic circuits a power supply is constructed using the IC regulator LM340-05 .It is a 3-terminal regulator whose output voltage is 5 vand the current rating is up to 1.5 amp. The circuit diagram is shown below.

This IC has internal current limit at 2 A for pulse operation. It also has safe area protectionand thermal shutdown protection at a junction temperature of 150oC to prevent burnout.The shunt diode protects the regulator from short circuits occurring at its input terminals. For 5 volts output the input must be atleast 8 volts and the diode must have 25 V PIV rating with a current rating higher than 1 A.

15 V Power Supplies for Linear Application: Some electronic devices need bipolar supply
for their operation.In such cases the IC regulators LM340K-15 and LM320K-15 can be used to build the bipolar power supply.The first Ic gives an output of +15 volts and the second IC gives a regulated voltage of -15V .The circuit diagram is shown below.The two capacitors provide ripple free DC output voltage and the resistor R1 is needed to ensure that the positive regulator starts up when the negative regulator has heavy load..R2 offsets the effect on 15 V regulation caused by adding R1. The diodes must have high current rating higher than 1A.

The input voltage of +18 and -18V from any stepdown centre tap transformer can be applied to the circuit.The LM340 K-15 is a +15V regulator with load current capability of up to 1.5A and the LM320 K-15 is a -15V regulator with current capability of up to 1.5 A. Both these regulators have current limit,safe area and thermal shut down protection.Proper heat sinking is required.

Adjustable Three- Terminal Positive Voltage regulator (LM 317 HV) : For laboratory applications adjustable regulated load voltages are required.There are certain IC regulators available for this purporse. LM 317, LM 338, and LM 350, are adjustable regulators. They have maximum load currents from 0.10 to 1.5 A. For example, the LM317 is a three terminal positive voltage regulator, which can be operated with the output voltage regulated at any setting over the range of 1.2 V to 57 V. The following circuit explains how the regulated output voltage of an LM317 can be set. The LM317 require a minimum dropout voltage of 3V across its input and output terminals .In the circuit the capacitor C1 minimizes problems caused by the long leads between the rectifier and LM317. The capacitor C2 improves the transient response.Any ripple voltage from the rectifier will be reduced by a factor of about 1000 if R2 is bypassed by a 1 uF tantalum capacitor or 10uF aluminum electrolytic capacitor.

PIN DIAGRAM

Resistors R1 and R2 set the output to any desired voltage over the adjustment range (1.2 to 57 V). The output voltage desired can be determined using equation.

Vo = VREF [1+ R2/R1] + IADJ .R2 where VREF = 1.25 V, the reference voltage between the output and adjustment terminals. However, the current IADJ is very small (100 micro Amperes) and constant. So the voltage drop across R2 due to IADJ is also very small and can be neglected so that equation can be written as Vout = 1.25 [1+ R2/R1] The current set resistor Rx is usually 240 Ohms, and to achieve good load regulation it should be tied directly to the output of the regulator rather than near the load. The load regulation is 0.1 percent while the line regulation is 0.01 percent per volt. This means that the output voltage varies only 0.01 percent for each volt of input voltage. The ripple rejection is 80 db, equivalent to 10,000. The LM317 IC protects itself against overheating and it shutdowns by itself during high temperatures and resumes itself once the overload condition is removed. External Protection : To protect the regulator from the input short circuit and high currents normally diodes are used.If these diodes are not used the load capacitance can pump back the current into its output and can destroy the regulator. The regulator circuit with external protection is shown below.

In the above circuit the diode1 protects the regulator from input short circuits and the diode2 protects the regulator from output short circuits. Adjustable Three- Terminal Negative voltage Regulator ( LM 337 HV) : The LM337 is an adjustable 3terminal negative voltage regulator capable of supplying in excess of 1.5 A over an output voltage range of 1.2 V to 37 V. This IC regulator has internal Thermal Overload Protection , Internal Short Circuit Current Limiting Constant with Temperature , Output Transistor SafeArea Compensation and Floating Operation for High Voltage Applications.The circuit diagram is shown below. In the circuit the capacitor C1 minimizes problems caused by the long leads between the rectifier and LM317. The capacitor C2 improves the transient response.

This negative voltage regulator has line regulation of 0.01%/V , Load regulation of typically 0.3% and has excellent thermal regulation, 0.002%/W. The negative regulator operates on the same principle of positive regulator except that R1 is a 120 resistor and the maximum input voltage is only 50 V.The output of this negative adjustable supply varies between -1.2 V to -47V. The output voltage is given by Vo = 1.25V + (10mA)R2 Switching Power Supply : The basic advantages of linear regulators are they are known to be relatively noise-free and reasonably reliable. They are generally easy to design and fairly inexpensive to manufacture .But there are certain limitations in series voltage regulators. The bulk size of step down transformers, heat dissipation in series pass transistors and requirement of large heat sinks to dissipate energy loss and the need of large valued capacitors to suppress the ripple are the major drawbacks with the linear voltage regulators. Hence Switched regulators

have become popular now a days. The switching regulator is increasing in popularity because it offers the advantages of higher power conversion efficiency and increased design flexibility,i.e multiple output voltages of different polarities can be generated from a single input voltage.

Principle of working : Switching regulation is the technique by which an unregulated power is efficiently converted to regulated load power through the use of controlled switching devices. Switching voltage regulators are used where it is required to supply a stable output voltage from a varying input voltage with a minimum power loss even under varying load conditions. A simple switching regulator consists of a contro switch (transistor), a low pass filter and sampling network etcThe circuit diagram is shown below.

In the circuit S is a transistor used as a control switch. It is switched between saturation and cutoff. During ON mode the switch is in saturation mode with negligible voltage drop across the collector and emitter terminals of the switch where as in OFF mode the switch is in cut-off mode with negligible current through the collector and emitter terminals. On the contrary the voltage-regulating switch, in a linear regulator circuit, always remains in the active region.Due to this current is not passed continuously through the transistor and hence the power dissipation is reduced to minimum. The transistor is switched ON and OFF by an electronic pulse width modulator. The filter circuit smoothens the output wave form and the sampling network (R1-R2) controls the duty cycle such that the output voltage remains constant.

There are three types of basic switching regulator configurations. They are (i).Step down or Buck switching regulator (ii) Step up or Boost regulator (iii) Inverting or Fly back regulator.

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