Customer Reviews

Power Supply Cookbook (EDN Series for Design Engineers)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book has a good level of detail overall. Brown's use of design examples give the reader enough meat to be of use in actual design situations. Also has a good section on thermal analysis/design and feedback loop compensation.

I am Marty Brown - the author. I am about to write the next revision.
Comment: I had written my books because the books on the market then and now do not reflect the real-world needs of the designer on the bench, (where to start, what is important, how to tackle the more complicated aspects of the design and hardware, etc). Simulation is a good thing, but not all parasitics are included. Without the real world considerations, the final product may still fail.
I need your inputs. The book is getting dated and I would like to incoporate some of the latest needs of readers/designers. I have always been an engineer that had sought an intuitive understanding of what I had designed and I hope to continue that through my writing.
Please email any comments to my email address marty.brown@sierra-energy.biz. Questions are also welcomed and I hope I can answer them all. Also, any mistakes you may have found in the "Cookbook" or subject recommendations, please let me know.
Thank you for reading the book and good luck to all of you.

This is one of those books easily understandable by those with enough technical background but too simplified for those with limited knowledge of power electronics. Nevertheless I think that if you are engaged in the desing of limited power (let's say up to 200W) switch mode power supplies you MUST have this book.

This is an important book to every one who needs real informations about bulding SMPS, also it includes REAL circuits so you can make.
PCB LAYOUT is also there.

I'm not a professional engineer -- just a moderately adventurous hobbyist who wanted to know more about how power supplies worked and the meaning of some of the terminology associated with them. This review is aimed at other hobbyists -- a real engineer might have a very different opinion of the book. I'd never dream of designing my own switching power supply, so I can't say with any conviction that this is a good (or complete) book in that regard. This book has given me a much greater appreciation for what considerations go into designing a supply, as well as some general considerations that might be relevant to powering any project. Also, reading a book that tackles real world problems helps to fill in some basic knowledge gaps that otherwise typically come from experimentation and experience. It is very readable -- though at a minmum the reader should have practical working knowledge of Ohm's law, Kirchoff's laws, a basic understanding of impeadance for AC circuits, and a working knowledge of semiconductors (rectifiers and transistors) in order to get much benefit from the book. For the typical hobbyist, the moderate price also makes this book more approachable than other books on the topic.

Update -- after using the book for a while, I'd probably downgrade to 3 stars if I could -- even with my limited background I found numerous errors.

Is this book reviewed before it's published? It contains too many errors, some of which are fundamental. Is it practical, if the design equations are only presented, not explained? Anyway, you can get some ideas for your switching power designs after reading this book.

With all respect to the author--this is not a well-written book.

The outline of the text follows:

>>> Chapter 1: The Role of the Power Supply... (in case you hadn't figured this out)
Lots of bromides about power supply design. Cost vs. design-time; Efficiency vs. noise and various other trade-offs. A purview of typical power supply specs and a very brief nod to design software and lab gear. Interesting comments, but not a lot of cohesion.

>>> Chapter 2: An Introduction to the Linear Regulator
A very brief (8 pages) introduction to the linear regulator. The shunt (zener) regulator gets a short paragraph and one figure. The linear regulator is introduced without a lot of supporting analysis (or design equations). Several topologies of linear regulators appear in figures without much elaboration in the text.

>>> Chapter 3: Pulsewidth Modulated Switching Power Supplies
The core chapter--concentrating on the topic the author really wishes to discuss: switching supplies. The author's central dogma is introduced in Fig. 3-6 which is a flowgraph of his design algorithm for PWM switching supplies. Subsequent sections of Chapter 3 plow through each block in the flowgraph--until you get to "Higher Order Functions Design" at which point the isomorphic map between the flowgraph and the text breaks down. After this point, the reader finds himself on an intellectual scavenger hunt in the main text and the appendices to fill in the remaining details.

>>> Chapter 4: Waveshaping Techniques to Improve Switching Power Supply Efficiency
Advanced topics on switching supplies.

>>> Appendix A: Thermal Analysis
A basic electrical engineer's introduction to thermal design (by analogy with Ohm's law).

>>> Appendix B: Feedback Loop Compensation
A lengthy treatment of stability analysis via Bode plot (gain and phase margin) with discussion of compensation techniques. This is a fairly lengthy section and would have nestled nicely into the main text.

>>> Appendix C: Power Factor Correction
A discussion of improved efficiency through power factor correction.

>>> Appendix D: Magnetism and Magnetic Components
Remedial information on magnetic circuits.

>>> Appendix E: Noise Control and EMI
Notes on fighting RFI in switching supplies.

>>> Appendix F: Miscellaneous Information
A few tables on units conversion and some information on wire gauges -- that's all.


My complaints with the text:

1. The book is mis-named. The proper title is "PWM Switching Power Supply Cookbook". Coverage of linear regulators is minimal--despite all the advice in Chapter 1 regarding the proper selection of the power supply technology.

2. The book has errors that should have been caught by a casual proof-read. Consider the singular design example of a linear regulator. When analyzing the rise in junction temperature with a hefty heat sink, the thermal resistance between case and sink is reported as a whopping 65 degrees C per Watt--which would make the overall temperature rise much worse than without the heat sink. After some backwards engineering--one will discover that the resistance should have been reported as 0.65 degrees C/Watt--but the bogus number is dutifully repeated throughout the example.

3. The book is not self consistent. For instance, the term Wa first appears on page 39 with no explanation. Call me dense, but I have to "google" the term on the internet to figure out Wa is 'winding area'.

4. The book is sloppy. For instance, Table A-2 in the appendix has a pair of columns labelled "Minimum" and another pair labelled "Maximum" -- but no verbiage explaining the difference between the like-labelled entries.

5. There are lots of equations in the book--but even the choice of what is included versus excluded defies explanation. In the discussion of boost mode converters there are equations for the inductor current and the energy stored in the magnetic field--but no equation for the output voltage of the converter -- which may be of more than nominal interest to the designer. The equation for discontinuous mode is a little complicated--but the equation for continuous mode is quite elegant (and, evidently AWOL from the book).

6. The material development is most frustrating. For instance, on page 44 we are informed that an 'air gap' is required in unipolar flux drive transformers. No discussion of why. No review of magnetic circuits. No discussion of saturation. No analogy to current limiting resistors in electrical circuits. Just the blanket assertion and then a quick pivot to the equations used to determine the properties of the gap.

I tried hard to like this book. I tried hard to read this book. But the presentation and development of ideas is so sloppy, so convoluted and obtuse--I couldn't get into the spirit of the work. The text reads like a first attempt at a rough draft; I was shocked to see this was a 2nd edition.

If you are already well versed in PWM switching supplies--you may get some benefit from the book or you may enjoy filling in the missing details, correcting the typos, interpolating missing table headings, etc. If you are new to power supply design, I encourage you to look elsewhere for help.

I recommend this book without reservation. I have been able to design supplies that are within specs with very little trail and error. The book is truly a gem! I look forward eagerly to the next edition.

This is an exelent book, if somebody purchased this book and wrote that this book has equations but they are not explained, is because the title say it all:"cookbook".
It is practical and a good reference at least for the novice, but remember, this is not a book for somebody that do not understand the meaning on poles an zeros, neither for the one do not know how to bias a bjt.
There is not in the market yet a book that tell you how design a buck or boost converter step-by-step, since choose resistor up to choose the control method and op amp. One have to search and buy many books and then develop your oun skills in converters.

Pros:
*Not very expensive
*Good theory and a lot of examples
*Includes all basic guidelines for design SMPS.

Cons:
Only one: some equations are not accurate, they are written in the form: Vsw=~2Vin, it is an approximate equation which do not take into account other values like Vdiode, etc,. You will have to find somewhere else this exact equation, but you still can design from simple to complex power supplies with the equations in this book.

Highly recommended.

I found this book to be informative, however, after reviewing the book and trying to work through the examples I found a tremendous amount of errors, mis-prints and, lack of continuity.

I would not recommend this book for the beginner, but for the experienced tech it does offer some unique thoughts.