Switching Power Supply Chips Cut Energy Drain

摘要

Switching power supply chips from firms such as Power Integrations Inc. (San Jose, Calif.), Fairchild Semicon-ductor International (San Jose, Calif.) and STMicroelectronics Inc. (Lexington, Mass.) offer significant reductions in power drain, especially when products are in standby or no-load mode. Vendors say such chips are increasingly significant because of the proliferation of energy-gulping electronic devices in homes and businesses. Power Integrations' LinkSwitch series of switching power conversion ICs is intended to replace low-power linear transformer designs in adapters and battery chargers rated at 3 W and below (see the figure). LinkSwitch, along with Power Integrations' TinySwitch-II and TOPSwitch-GX product families, allows the firm to address power supplies from 0 W to 250 W, or 90% of all ac-dc power supplies currently manufactured, according to Rich Fassler, director of product marketing.