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Re: Regulated Power Supply vs. Unregulated Power Supply?

Posted by Steve Eddy on March 9, 2002 at 13:07:25

In Reply to: Re: Regulated Power Supply vs. Unregulated Power Supply? posted by Jim 1234 on March 9, 2002 at 10:27:04:

Thans for the explanation Steve! So when it comes to amplifier design, what are the trade offs between the two?

The primary advantages of regulated supplies are reduction of ripple voltage on the supply rails (which can appear as noise at the amplifier's output depending on the power supply rejection capability of the particular amplifier topology) as well as a reduction in the power supply impedance if you're using active regulation.

The disadvantages is are mainly increased circuitry which means increased costs and reduced overall efficiency since the unregulated voltage needs to be significantly higher than the regulated voltage so that the unregulated voltage always remains above the regulator's drop out voltage, which is the voltage below which the regulator no longer regulates. For active regulators, the dropout voltage is typically a volt or two above the regulated voltage though there are special low-dropout regulators with dropout voltages of just a fraction of a volt.

When the regulator is regulating, it's shunting to ground any voltage above the regulated voltage which is in effect wasted power. Also, the regulator must pass all of the current that's being delivered to the amplifier so for power amplifiers, the regulators can require just as much heat sinking as the amplifier itself.

se

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