Mini tutorials · Voltage regulation
Why regulate, energy and switches, linear vs switching, major topologies, inefficiency and limits, and what “good enough” means for DC accuracy vs transient response.
Foundation
Rails, line and load variation — what “regulated” is trying to protect.
Load current, soft source; divider as a thought experiment.
Z_out; regulation as achieving low output impedance over the band of interest.
Capacitors (electric field) and inductors (magnetic field) — why both appear in converters.
Devices
On/off, body diode (light), where each is used in power stages.
Why N-channel high-side often needs a bootstrap/boost; P-channel high-side tradeoffs.
Absolute max / drive differences at a conceptual level — not a full GaN design course.
Linear path
Pass element, dropout, dissipation — when linear still wins.
Error amp, reference, loop — control vocabulary in power language.
Short bridge to Control Loops: PM/BW ↔ load-step behavior (link out for depth).
Switching topologies
Duty cycle as the knob; energy shuttling instead of continuous drop.
Step-down; switch, diode/sync FET, L, C — core waveforms.
Step-up; energy store and release on the switch cycle.
Step up or down; common non-inverting block picture.
Negative output; when and why it appears on boards.
Non-inverting buck-boost family; two inductors / coupled picture at block level.
Energy-transfer capacitor topology; contrast with SEPIC.
Limits & requirements
R_DS(on), diode drops, gate charge, copper/core, switching loss, quiescent current.
f_sw, V_in, V_out, duty limits — how low V_out can go for a given input and frequency.
e.g. ±3% DC over line/load/temp vs load-step droop and recovery — two different problems.