Troubleshooting Distributed Power Systems (Part 7): Measuring Ripple

Focus:

Circuit designers, particularly power supply designers, are frequently required to measure power supply ripple. Nevertheless, many engineers struggle with this measurement as sensitivity, selectivity, and bandwidth limitations degrade the accuracy of oscilloscope results. But as Steve Sandler explains in this 7-minute video, specialized probes and adapters can improve the results obtained from the conventional time-domain approach to measuring ripple, while other approaches to measuring ripple—involving the spectrum and impedance domains—can yield more-accurate and more-insightful results. Various test setups and measurement techniques are described in this video and example results obtained from testing different point of load regulators are discussed. Sandler also provides tips to help designers avoid common measurement pitfalls.

What you’ll learn:

• How to make more-accurate measurements of power supply ripple
• How to measure and analyze ripple in the time, spectrum and impedance domains
• How to avoid common pitfalls in measuring power supply ripple

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Author & Publication:

Steve Sandler, AEi Systems and Picotest, Phoenix, Ariz, How2Power Today, Dec 16 2013

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