Switching Regulators
DC–DC converters switch an inductor on and off rapidly to convert voltage with 80–95 % efficiency.
Intermediate
Instead of burning excess voltage, a switching regulator chops the input with a transistor at tens of kHz to several MHz and smooths it with an inductor and capacitor. The output is set by the duty cycle (fraction of time the switch is on).
Trade-offs: much less heat, but switching noise (EMI), output ripple and more careful PCB layout. See Electrical → Power Electronics for detailed converter analysis.
Sub-topics (2)
Buck Converter
A step-down DC–DC converter: Vout = D · Vin.
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Boost Converter
A step-up DC–DC converter: Vout = Vin / (1 − D).
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