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Difference between Linear Supply and Switch Search the site ...
 0
Mode Power Supply
The linear power supply and Switch mode power supply, both supplies DC
 power to electrical and electronic circuits but the similarities end here. The crucial MOST SEARCHED TERMS
factor which differentiates linear power supply and SMPS is the working procedure.
 The Linear power supply converts high voltage AC into the low voltage using a Pi Filter
transformer and then converts it into DC voltage while the switched mode supply
converts AC into DC first then transform that DC voltage into desired voltage. Difference Between Half Wave and Full
 0
Wave Rectifier
The Switch mode power supply is also termed as SMPS in abbreviated form. SMPS
Difference Between Clipper and Clamper
 is most commonly used in mobile chargers, DC motors etc. On the contrary, the
linear power supply is used in high-frequency application such as Radio Frequency Difference between Half Adder and Full
0 application etc. Adder
SHARES

Another significant factor which creates the difference between these linear power Varactor Diode

supply and SMPS is size. The linear power supply is bulky while the SMPS is light Difference between Centre Tapped and
in weight. This makes the SMPS portable and can be easily used anywhere while Bridge Rectifier
linear power supply can be used only for laboratory or big electrical and electronic
circuit. Point Contact Diode

Gunn Diode
We will discuss some more significant differences between linear and switch mode
power supply in the comparison chart but before that let’s put light on the roadmap Filter
of this article.
PIN Diode

Content: Linear power supply and SMPS

1. Comparison Chart

2. Definition
NEW ADDITIONS
3. Key Differences

4. Conclusion Phase Modulation (PM)

Frequency Modulation (FM)

Comparison Chart Instrumentation Amplifier

Amplitude Modulation
SWITCH MODE POWER
PARAMETERS LINEAR POWER SUPPLY
SUPPLY (SMPS) Difference between BJT and JFET

Bandpass Filter
Definition It completes the stepping It converts the input signal into
down of AC voltage first DC first then it steps down the Photoresistor – Light Dependent Resistor

then it converts it into DC. voltage up to desired level. (LDR)

TRIAC
Efficiency Low efficiency i.e. about High Efficiency i.e. about 60-65%

20-25% Voltage Controlled Oscillator (V C O)

Difference Between Single-mode and

Voltage Voltage regulation is done Voltage regulation is done by
Multimode Optical Fiber
Regulation by voltage regulator. feedback circuit.

Magnetic Stalloy or CRGO core is Ferrite core is used

CATEGORIES
material used used

Analog & Digital Communication

Weight It is bulky. It is less bulky in comparison to
linear power supply. Basic Electronics

Comparisons
Reliability More reliable in its reliability depends on the
comparison to SMPS. transistors used for switching Digital Electronics

Electronics Instrumentation
Complexity Less complex than SMPS. More complex than Linear power
supply. Optical Fiber System

Transient It possess faster It possess slower response.

response response.

RF interference No RF interference RF shielding is required as

switching produces more RF

interference.

Noise and It is immune to moise and Effect of noise and

Electromagnetic electromagnetic electromagentic interference is
interference interference. quite significant, thus EMI filters

are required.

Applications Used in Audio frequency Used in chargers of mobile

applications and RF phones, DC motors etc.

applications.

Definition
Linear Power Supply
The Linear Power Supply is power supplying circuit which is used in electrical and
electronic circuit to supply the DC power to the circuit. It consists of a step-down
transformer, rectifier, a filter circuit and voltage regulator.

The AC is always supplied with high voltage because it is economical to supply AC at

high voltage. The frequency of the AC signal is very low, i.e. 50 Hz or 60Hz. To
reduce the voltage of AC, step down transformer is used. The size of the
transformer is large for linear power supply.

The transformer which is used to step down the low-frequency AC signal will be
bulky. If the AC signal frequency is high, then a small transformer can be used but
in this application the AC signal comprised of low-frequency AC thus, the circuit
requires a large size and bulky transformer.

The step-down voltage is then passed to the rectifier circuit to convert it into DC.
The DC voltage obtained from the rectifier comprises of AC pulses. Thus, a filter
circuit is used to remove the AC ripples.

The obtained DC voltage does not remain constant; it changes with the variation in
input voltage or the value of load resistor. This variation in the output voltage is
undesirable. Therefore, a voltage regulator is used after filtering the signal.

The voltage regulator consists of the variable resistor the value of which changes
according to the output required. This variable resistor produces voltage drop when
the output voltage required is low.

Drawback of Linear Power Supply

The drawback of the linear power supply is that the use of voltage regulator
requires sink which increases the size of the power supply. The voltage regulator
dissipates power due to which ohmic losses occur this increases the temperature,
and thus a heat sink is required.

As a consequence of using heatsink and transformer of large size the size of the
linear power supply becomes more and this makes the power supply bulky to use.
Moreover, dissipation caused by variable resistor decreases the efficiency of linear
power supply to 25-50%.

Switched Mode Power Supply

The Switched Mode Power Supply operated on the principle of switching using a
MOSFET transistor. It consists rectifier circuit, a filter circuit, chopper, chopper
controller, output transformer and a filter circuit.

The principle of working of Switched Mode Power Supply is based on switching

technique. The low-frequency AC is converted first into DC signal. Then this DC
signal is chopped using chopper circuit. Chopper Circuit consists of MOSFET
switching transistor which switches ON or OFF with the help of chopper controller
circuit.

The output obtained by Chopper is high-frequency DC signal. Now again a step-

down transformer is used to convert this high voltage high-frequency signal into a
low voltage signal. The step-down transformer used in this case will be small in size
because the transformer used to operate for high-frequency application is small in
size.

This is the advantage of using an SMPS (switched mode power supply) circuit. This
configuration power supply is not bulky and thus portable. The voltage regulation in
SMPS is obtained by the feedback circuit. The feedback circuit takes input from
output DC voltage and gives output to chopper controller. The chopper controller
generates the gate pulse according to the output DC.

Therefore, voltage regulation in SMPS does not dissipate power and thus do not
require sink. This increase the efficiency of SMPS power supply as there is no ohmic
loss and the size is also small.The efficiency of SMP
S lies in the range of 65-75%.

Key Differences Between Linear Supply and Switch

Mode Power Supply
1. The main difference between the linear power supply and SMPS is
that linear power supply converts the high voltage of AC into low
voltage AC first then the rectification procedure takes place. On the
contrary, the SMPS converts the AC signal into DC signal first then the
stepping down of voltage signal takes place.

2. Linear power supply use voltage regulator for voltage regulation of

the output voltage while SMPS uses feedback circuit for voltage
regulation.

3. Power dissipation also plays a key role in differentiating linear power

supply and SMPS. The Linear power supply also dissipates power and
thus requires a heat sink, but SMPS do not require heat sink as there
is no power dissipation.

4. The step-down transformer used in linear supply is bulky while in

SMPS the step-down transformer is light in weight.

5. The noise disturbance is more in SMPS due to switching action; this

makes SMPS inappropriate for audio and radio frequency application.
The linear power supply is immune to noise disturbance and thus used
in audio and radio frequency application.

6. There is the major difference between the efficiency of the linear

power supply and SMPS. The efficiency of the linear power supply is
low about 20-25% due to ohmic losses while that of SMPS is high, i.e.
about 65-75%.

Conclusion
The linear power supply steps down the AC voltage first then converts it into DC
while SMPS converts into DC first then uses the step-down transformer to obtain
the desired voltage. The SMPS has the drawback that it creates noise interference
due to switching. Moreover, switching also creates electromagnetic interferences
and RF interferences thus EMI filters, and RF shielding is also used along with
SMPS circuit.

Related Terms:
1. Uninterruptible Power Supply

2. Power Amplifier

3. Difference Between Half Wave and Full Wave Rectifier

4. Difference Between Single-mode and Multimode Optical Fiber

5. Linear variable differential transformer (LVDT)

Filed Under: Comparisons

Comments

shivam says
September 14, 2018 at 6:31 am

sir, I have a question, Transformer is working on AC only which we read

from the starting, but in SMPS high voltage high-frequency DC is obtained
after the rectifier and chopper so how the transformer start working..?? or
this transformer is working on DC ..????

Reply

mj says
October 29, 2018 at 7:54 am

usefull info.

Reply

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