As electronic devices become more versatile and complex in structure, so do the power systems that power them, and power supply design is fraught with design and business challenges for original equipment manufacturers (Oems) without dedicated power supply teams.

About Power supply

Broadly speaking, a power source is a device that converts other forms of energy into electricity, such as hydropower, wind, sea tide, water pressure difference in DAMS, renewable energy such as solar energy, as well as power sources such as coal and oil. The common power supply is 380V industrial electricity and civil 110V-220V AC power, in addition to batteries, charging banks, power adapters and other types of DC power supplies.

Any electronic products need to have a power supply, to be exact, the transformer is first used to reduce the AC power supply voltage to the required low voltage, and then the rectifier turns the AC voltage into a single direction of DC voltage; Of course, filtering and isolation are also required to prevent the passage of higher frequency electromagnetic interference currents, while ensuring personal safety.

According to the nature of use, power supplies can be divided into independent power supplies, switching power supplies, customized power supplies, modular (configurable) power supplies, charging power supplies, etc.

Why modular and configurable?

In general, we have a number of ways to provide all the DC power rail voltages required for a given electronic design. For example, an off-the-shelf power converter can be used to provide an electronic system with a DC voltage isolated from a dangerous high voltage line, and an additional voltage rail can be generated by an internal DC-DC converter.

A DC-DC converter is a product consisting of discrete components or a pre-designed module that can be installed directly on the PCB or somewhere inside the case. In this way, a multioutput converter can be connected with an off-the-shelf power supply. In some cases, the designer may choose to use multiple power converters to generate some or all of the required system voltage. When these options are difficult to implement, or do not adequately meet design requirements, designers can look to custom power supply designs.

However, for medical devices (surgical robots, imaging equipment and laser equipment) and industrial automation equipment, designing a custom power supply from scratch will affect the product to market, make the equipment more expensive, and waste valuable time and resources due to compliance and the pursuit of high power density. In this case, modular configurable power supplies may be a viable option.