Page 19 - PEN eBook October2023
P. 19
POWER SUPPLY
How to Prototype a
Power Bank Charger
Without Building
Dedicated Hardware
By Diarmuid Carey, staff applications engineer for central applications at
Analog Devices Inc.
Ideally, any power supply design should start with some basic proof-of-concept tests, which
often involve testing an existing demo board. The demo simply takes this preexisting step (of
testing single rails on the demo hardware) and expands on it to produce a working system using
demo hardware. Furthermore, as this demo was needed within a relatively short timeframe,
the typical development process of design, layout, build, assemble and test (plus any design
iteration) was not possible, so the system was prototyped in its entirety using nothing but
readily available hardware.
APPLICATION
To answer the question posed in the headline, it was necessary to choose a high-level application
as a starting point to prove this was possible. This led to the power bank charging application being
selected as a proof of concept. As power management is a prerequisite for every electronic project,
any other application could have been selected.
22 OCTOBER 2023 | www.powerelectronicsnews.com
