What does regulated power supply mean

It depends on your needs. Unregulated power supplies are less expensive, but can only supply power as clean as the available input power. If you are powering equipment with sensitive electronics, clean power is an absolute requirement. You can use an unregulated power supply if it is matched closely to the voltage and current requirements of the device, allowing it to still run smoothly. If you need a power supply that can offer multiple DC output voltages, then one regulated power supply with multiple outputs will be a better option than multiple supplies with single outputs.

Regulated power supplies are also more common and easily found as it is getting easier to make regulated power supplies that are still inexpensive. Also, if the device you are using is sensitive, you may want to choose a regulated power supply, giving you more confidence that your device is receiving the correct amount of voltage no matter the input. If you are unsure of what type of power supply you are using for your sensor, contact us today! We will help you determine if you are using a regulated or unregulated power supply and what type of sensor will be the best choice for your needs.

Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District via flickr cc. Unregulated Power Supply: The Differences. Regulated vs. What does Power Supply mean? Power Supply. Newsletter Signup. There, all blocks in the regulated power supply except the voltage regulation block are also available in an unregulated power supply. Similar to the regulated supply, the AC input voltage is processed up to the rippled DC voltage output between the filter capacitor. Nevertheless, there may be power supplies without this smoothing capacitor as well.

In that case, slow variations in the input AC voltages, such as voltage sags, could be reflected in the output. Even with a smoothing capacitor at the filter, there may be high-frequency noise, which comes from the AC mains at the output. The main disadvantage of an unregulated power supply is that the DC voltage output depends on the output current. That is, when the load draws a high current due to its power requirement, the DC voltage drops according to the desired power.

However, unregulated power supplies are cheaper since there are fewer components. The heat dissipation is also less than a regulated power supply as there is no voltage regulator this may be not true in the case of a switched mode DC power supply, in which the efficiency is much higher.

Figure Electrical devices such as LED bulbs, which are not sensitive to slight alternations in the voltage can be used with unregulated power supplies. Power supplies are used to provide power to electrical and electronic devices. Most of the electronic devices use DC power for the operation, and this DC power should have a clean and constant voltage.

Regulated power supplies are the units that convert AC main voltage into a clean, constant DC voltage. With the use of a voltage regulator circuit, the variations and noise in the input AC voltage are avoided in the output. In contrast, unregulated DC power supply does not have a voltage regulation circuit. Therefore, it only provides a rippled-DC voltage by rectifying and filtering the AC.

This is the main difference between regulated and unregulated power supply. Unlike the output of a regulated power supply, unregulated power supply output will reflect the variations and noise in the input AC. Nevertheless, these AC distortions can be mitigated using smoothing capacitors at the output. You can download PDF version of this article and use it for offline purposes as per citation notes. Available here. For many switching regulators the duty ratio ratio of switch on-time to total switching period is controlled.

In other topologies, such as the resonant LLC, it is the switching frequency that is controlled. Datasheets for power supplies, including the unregulated ones, will include some form of information informing the user how much the output voltage can be expected to change under a range of conditions. Sometimes a single number is given as either total regulation or just regulation , which encompasses all conditions.

It is also common to see the two listed separately, indicating how much the output will change with respect to a single condition i. Input voltage or Load. Now, knowing what regulation does and how it works, how do you know which one you need for your application? As discussed earlier, the output of unregulated power supplies is heavily dependent upon the operating conditions. The only way to improve the tolerance on the output is to limit the range of operating conditions. Even in applications where the range of conditions is narrow, differences in component tolerances and temperature can lead to differences in output voltage from converter to converter.

This is usually specified in datasheets as set-point accuracy. The two primary benefits of an unregulated dc-dc converter compared to that of a regulated converter are size and cost; unregulated converters are often smaller and less expensive than equivalent regulated converters. This is the result of the extra components required to create the feedback loop. When selecting an unregulated dc-dc converter, the manufacturer will often supply graphs to show the relationship between the output and line and load conditions.

The user should inspect these graphs and verify that the voltage is within their limits for all operating conditions. The graph in Figure 3 is one such graph and shows three curves.

The min and max lines indicate the set-point accuracy. An individual converter will fall in between these lines with a load line parallel to these curves. The load line shows how much the output voltage can be expected to change as the load goes from min to max. A tightly controlled voltage is important in many applications. Regulated dc-dc converters can provide tight tolerances over output voltages under a wide range of operating conditions.

In these cases, the designer may be able to reduce size and cost by using an un-regulated dc-dc converter. Categories: Fundamentals , Product Selection. Have comments regarding this post or topics that you would like to see us cover in the future?

Send us an email at powerblog cui. Ron Stull has gathered a range of knowledge and experience in the areas of analog and digital power as well as ac-dc and dc-dc power conversion since joining CUI in Outside of power engineering Ron can be found playing guitar, running, and touring the outdoors with his wife, where their goal is to visit all of the U.

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