It may sound bizarre but it’s true. Going back to the earliest days of metalworking, circa 3500 years ago, some ‘bright spark’ established a process for fusing the surface of two elements to form a single unit and welding was born!
“Out of the spent and unconsidered earth the cities rise again.” Rudyard Kipling
When operating a switching converter from the wall outlet, part of the absorbed energy feeds the load while the rest is lost and dissipated in heat. To get an idea of the loss amount in a given application – assume a set-top box adapter – simply place your hand on the cover while it operates and feel the heat: a warm enclosure implies significant losses while a cold case (no pun intended) characterizes a highly-efficient power supply. If you now press the standby button, you expect the box to cool down after several minutes. However, in some cases, you can still feel a warm enclosure, telling you that losses still exist despite standby.
Wireless devices such as smartphones and tablets are becoming the lifeline for most people. Ensuring that this lifeline has power when needed is a major concern. System designers therefore look at every aspect to minimize power loss. To help realize that every device matters, we will look at the Schottky diode in the boost converter for the LED backlight.
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