Customer Reviews

Switching Power Supply Design

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wonder if I am alone in being a bit concerned about the somewhat decreasing number of books on fundamental engineering topics. It's starting to be a bit of a worry- I have tried to dig into, for instance, the subject of IGBFET physics and actually came up with a rather good book. But generally, this is getting to be hard work and good luck.

Take this book, for instance. If this book suddenly went out of print, loads, and I am serious here, MANY of us would be in dead trouble, because there are just not so many books in this league. By the way, go and buy the book by Keith Billings as well. These two dovetail together beautifully. I think these two gentlemen were good friends and decided to corner the market with two definitive texts. Sneaky! Thanks though guys.

This book is a very fresh and approachable encyclopedia of the whole area, just about. The chapters are all very comprehensive and go right the way through the beginnings of the subject to very detailed focus on many diverse issues.

When I use the word "encyclopedia", don't be put off. The real temptation is to read it like a novel, and why not, it's totally addictive, well written, and you go away really feeling very enlightened.

Great points in favour are the huge chapters on bridge, half bridge, flyback, feedfoward, current mode, and current fed architectures. These are pretty exhaustive and tell you the whole bit - including reasons to choose them and reasons NOT to choose them.

The chapter about feedback loops and stability could have been written to put you off, but even this subject is very accessible here.

Mr Pressman passed away a while ago sadly, so no more new editions of this book, I'm afraid. It is inevitable that there are some subjects not covered. Among these, planar transformers is ...possibly... a bit vexing, as this is quite hard to dig up (try joining the IEEE, that tends to fix things). Another subject is MOSFET switching losses and the peculiarities of schottky rectifiers... But that's OK, since a lot of this is covered by the book by Vítezslav Benda and the applications notes by ST and International Rectifier on the web very well.

Harder to spot are books covering the new classes of very high frequency convertors, and the engineering issues (esp. EMI)covering them.

None of these are detriments to the book - which is excellent.

The book tends to concentrate on the theory of the general classes of circuit, while Keith Billings book concentrates on the various problems arising in all and every kind of topology.

Wheras this book will tell you about the voltage waveforms in half bridge convertors in great detail, Keith Billings book will tell you about low voltage protection, soft start, and rectification (thought that was trivial? Wrong....) issues. These are usually independent of which configuration is in play.

I should say that you should go and read more of this stuff. The Benda book is good, but so are half a dozen books which are out of or going out of print. Scramble while you can.

This appears to be a subject area in which maths becomes suddenly important, and gives the lie to the general belief that engineers don't need it - a bit like filter theory, deeper than you think.

Anyway, enjoy the swim and don't be afraid of drowning!

After reviewing this text, I found that it contains a wealth of information on various types of DC-DC converters including boost, buck, flyback, forward, and other topologies. The book gives a good treatment of the theory of operation along with describing equations and also practical information for less experienced engineers or technicians. It also contains a good treatment on control for SMPS's including the details of how Pulse Width Modulation feedback control works. I highly recommend this text for the practicing electronics or electrical engineer. The book is very thorough and it should be in your collection if you are involved in the design and/or analysis of switched supplies, associated circuitry, and power magnetics.

This book is for anyone who designs, debugs or wants a comprehensive understanding of switchers. I had the first edition of this book (that I lost) that was about half this size, but there's so much new info, that it's easily worth double the price. It's well written and appeals to beginners and experts alike.

A very great book on switching power supplies, easy to understand, it also includes design examples and practical hints. The author faces topics from an applied point of view, avoiding tedious academic deep calculations. Sometimes a little bit prolix. Section on ferrite transformer design is very useful, while section on resonant converters is just introduced.

Pressman does a good job presenting the most common switching power supply topologies. He also includes many useful design examples that show you how to calculate component values from basic operational parameters. Good section on magnetic core and transformer design. This book was recommended to me by one of Motorola's well-published power supply guru's. I found it to be well worth the $$.

Although a good primer on the basic switching topologies, with an excellent chapter on inductor and transformer design, I couldn't help but feel that this book is more than a little outdated (which it is, at nine years old). There was no mention of synchronous or polyphase switchers, inductorless converters, charge pumps, high-frequency designs...and the section on MOSFETs left out what I feel was a great deal of information about paralleling and load sharing. Many of Linear Technology's app notes go above and beyond the material presented in this book...and they're free.

Exellent book on swiching power supplies - Mr.Pressman does an exellent job in conveying the basic principals,and takes you through the different topologies of the switching power supplies.
He also does an exellent job in magnetics and semiconductors that apply to the power supply. I just can't say enough about this book. Hats off to Mr.Pressman!

This is probably the best written book on the subject, that I've found. Each of the various topologies are clearly explained, with the appropriate design equations, and tradeoffs. This book is very practical, and a must have for anyone who is designing power supplies.

If you're an avid electronics enthusiast, you've more than likely had to build some power supplies. The days of building simple linear supplies are over. If you need various voltages that are carefully controlled and/or just want to build efficient supplies, you need to build a switchmode power supply. This handbook will take you through the major topologies, explaining them all in detail, along with the necessary math to choose the proper components, and the theory of how it's done - and how to choose the proper topology in the first place. The book is well-written and stuffed full of very useful information. Power Factor Correction is also covered, with examples, chips, and theory to build PFC circuits, along with transformer design and theory as well. This book is a great book to buy with "Switchmode Power Supply Handbook", by Keith Billings. Keith's book presents additional information and transformer design mock-ups, along with additional ways to calculate and pick components. Used together, you have the information you need to build a working switching supply with a minimum of hassle. Of course, this assumes that you're already famaliar with electronics and magnetism, and have a good working knowledge of algebra and basic trig. These books are not meant for beginners by any means. I am one happy customer to have found such a good reference for an art that seems to only be known by a few anymore, and other reference materials do not even begin to go into the depth that this book does.
The only shortcoming is that Pulse Width Modulation power supply chips are not covered much, but this book cannot be expected to keep up with the latest PWM chips used in switchmode supplies. This problem is easily resolved by going to National Semiconductor's website and getting current datasheets on PWM chips for standalone, voltage-controlled or current-mode designs, of which they have many. Motorola also has reference materials available on PWM offerings that they carry.

Pressman's book is one of those good reference books that belongs on every designer's shelf. It contains a broad sweep of the subject, and is very useful when doing a topography trade study. But the best is at the ends of the chapters, where Pressman has referenced his sources. One can then investigate the more detailed source material.

The limitation of Pressman's book is the lack of depth in the subject. That means this is not the only book you'll need. You will also have to get those references, because the information in this book is really only excerpts from the thirty years of developments summarized here. But that limitation is really Pressman's charter- a summary of the art and science of switching power supply design.