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Article: Using microcontrollers in high-density switch-mode power supplies: microcontrollers are finding their way into high-density power-supply designs as a way to reduce component count and increase performance. (design feature).
- Article from:
- EDN
- Article date:
- December 26, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. (US). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WHEN I WAS IN GRADUATE SCHOOL 10 years ago, a controls group proposed to the power-electronics center to use an advanced microcontroller in power supplies. This controller was to implement a new neural network controller to solve all of the nonlinear-control issues in power electronics. The controls group responded that this microcontroller cost only around $100. That was the end of the discussion because entire power supplies sold for less than the single chip.
To be practical in power supplies, the cost of microcontrollers had to drop almost two orders of magnitude. Today, UPS systems, power-factor correction offline supplies, isolated dc/dc converters, ...