Components Of A High Voltage Power Supply

A power supply is a device that supplies electric power to an electrical load. It refers to an electrical device that uses up electric power. It can be anything from lights in a house or factory to electrical appliances such as toaster. A high voltage power supply is a type of power that produces thousands of volts. The high voltage of power are used in a variety of industries .it has variety of features. Some of them are: a high output voltage stability that is less or equal to ±1% and higher than70% over current and short circuit protection and low leakage current at shutdown.

The high voltage power supply involves the conversion of a low input voltage with a low-frequency into a high output voltage. This is done through the use of power conversion built upon SMPS technology it stands for switched-mode power supply. It is a power supply unit that uses a switching regulator to convert electrical power in an efficient manner.
It transfers power from an AC to a DC load. High-frequency transformers are used in the conversion of the low input voltage into a high output voltage. During the conversion process the high-frequency switches between full-on and full-off states. When the switch is in the full-off state power is not conducted, as a result storage devices such as inductors are used to supply power. It is important because it minimizes wasted energy.

A high voltage supply is a complex conversion circuit that transforms DC bus voltages. These DC voltages are obtained through rectification of the input. This input is transformed into a high-frequency AC. The switches are controlled by the duty ratio. This is done to transfer the power.

A high-frequency transformer is used to amplify the AC. Once the voltages have been done, they are multiplied, and filtered at the secondary high-frequency transformer. This is done in order to produce the voltage levels that are necessary as the output.

A high voltage power supply system consists of various components each of them perform a particular function and these are listed below:

Transformer – it is a device that is responsible for transferring electrical energy from the primary to the secondary without affecting the frequency. It can be used to either step-up or down the level of the AC voltage. It is responsible for the electronic system from the AC power. The transformer’s primary winding is connected to the AC voltage source, which produces AC current and the secondary winding is connected to a load. Both the windings are not connected to each other. A voltage is induced in the secondary winding through electromagnetic induction. A high-voltage transformer is used in a high voltage power supply.

A high voltage power supply contains circuitry that made the user to control the output voltage level. The circuit contains fail-safe protection.

Rectifier: it is a device which is responsible for changing the AC power into a DC. The most basic rectifier is the diode. A diode operates as a rectifier in the forward direction.

There are three basic rectifier circuits that can be created using diodes namely: a half-wave rectifier, a full-wave center-tapped rectifier, and a full-wave-bridge rectifier.

Filter –it is used to prevent the ripple component from showing up in the output. It converts the DC obtained from rectifier circuits into a DC level. There are two basic types of filters namely: the capacitance filter and the resistor-capacitor filter. The capacitance filter is the simplest and cheapest filter. The RC (resistor-capacitor) filter, filters by blocking frequencies and allowing others to pass through. High-Pass and Low-Pass filters are common types of RC filters.

Ripple refers to the unwanted AC part of the signal which remains after rectification. This AC part can damage the load, so it’s important to have filters in a power supply. The filter is responsible for the signal and suppressing the AC component.

Regulator Circuits – a regulator’s job is to provide a DC output. In order for the load to operate it needs a output voltage. The output voltage level is maintained in spite of changes in the input voltage level.

The most common types of voltage regulators used are the shunt voltage regulator and the series voltage regulator.