Diff between Switching reg and ldo

[[email protected]]

Hi All,

I just wonder if any one give me the Advantages of Switching regulator
over LDO (linear regulator) and which are the situations where we can
use Switching regulator and the linear regulator. I have some idea on
the switching regulator and how it works but i do want to know the
exact the differences they use .....

Thanks and regards
Srikanth

 

[[email protected]]

Hi All,

I just wonder if any one give me the Advantages of Switching regulator
over LDO (linear regulator) and which are the situations where we can
use Switching regulator and the linear regulator. I have some idea on
the switching regulator and how it works but i do want to know the
exact the differences they use .....

The advantage of switching regulators is that they don't dissipate
much heat - they are usually around 90% efficient, so for every 9
watts you feed into your load, you only dissipate one watt in the
switching regulator.

A linear regulator supplying 3.3V from a 10V rail only 33% efficient -
you'd have to dissipate at least 6.7 watts in a linear regulator to
deliver 3.3 watts to the load in that situation, and you'd need a
correspondingly bigger heat sink.

 

[Phil Allison]

I just wonder if any one give me the Advantages of Switching regulator
over LDO (linear regulator) and which are the situations where we can
use Switching regulator and the linear regulator. I have some idea on
the switching regulator and how it works but i do want to know the
exact the differences they use .....

** Switching regulators reduce the cost of a given voltage regulator
esign - sometimes by a large factor !!

There is usually little or no cost advantage at low power levels - ie a few
watts.

Sometimes, the high frequency noise associated with fast switching circuits
is not acceptable since it will adversely affect the circuit that is being
supplied.

It all depends on the specifics of the application.

As always.



...... Phil

 

[Richard Henry]

Hi All,

I just wonder if any one give me the Advantages of Switching regulator
over LDO (linear regulator) and which are the situations where we can
use Switching regulator and the linear regulator. I have some idea on
the switching regulator and how it works but i do want to know the
exact the differences they use .....

Thanks and regards
Srikanth

In addition to the other responses, switching regulators can be used
to boost the input voltage, and also to reverse the polarity so you
can get, for example, +5v, +15v, -5v, -15v from a single 6v dc source.

Not that anyone uses 15v anymore.