Shrinking to the Challenge - How to design a Smaller, More Efficient AC-DC Power Supply

In an odd way power supplies are like insurance policies - you know you need one but it's not something you really want to think about. How your next electronic system functions is much more interesting, the power supply is a necessary evil to make it work. In another way, the analogy falls down. Insurance policies invariably increase in price, while power supplies have become smaller, more efficient and lower cost over the last couple of decades. This trend towards smaller power supplies, that leave more room in the system for added functionality and processing power, is set to continue. Furthermore, these power supplies must fit the standard formats that are already in use to avoid system re-design costs.

In the case of AC/DC power units, it is not dramatic technology breakthroughs that drive the trend, it is good engineering and the inventiveness to combine the best of a whole range of techniques and technologies that separate a really innovative power supply from an average one.