POWER SUPPLIES - MAKE VS BUY

Focus:

Despite the maturity of the power supply industry and the variety of power supplies available, many OEMs and the engineers who work for them continue to confront this issue: Should we purchase a power supply or design and build it ourselves? This informative and entertaining article clearly makes the case that you should not build your own power supply unless power supply design/manufacturing are your core competencies. The author identifies the many pitfalls of designing and building a power supply and what's required in terms of engineering skills, design and simulation software, test equipment, and knowledge of safety and EMI requirements. He also identifies the power supply performance, functionality, reliability and cost issues that you must address. Finally, the author presents four criteria you can use to determine when it does make sense to build your own power supply. Although this discussion relates mainly to ac-dc power supplies, the author also provides guidance on dc-dc converters.

What you’ll learn:

• How to determine whether to buy or build a power supply for use in your product or system
• How to convince your engineering manager that it doesn't make sense to build the power supply for your product

Notes:

Kevin Parmenter can be reached at kevin.parmenter@ieee.org.

View the Source

Author & Publication:

Kevin Parmenter, Director of Applications Engineering, ON Semiconductor, Organizational website, Oct 23 2002

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