SMPS

A switched-mode power supply (also switching-mode power supply and SMPS) is an electronic power supply unit (PSU) that incorporates a switching regulator. While a linear regulator maintains the desired output voltage by dissipating excess power in a pass power transistor, the SMPS rapidly switches a power transistor between saturation (full on) and cutoff (completely off) with a variable duty cycle whose average is the desired output voltage. The resulting rectangular waveform is low-pass filtered with an inductor and capacitor.
Switched-mode PSUs in domestic products such as personal computers often have universal inputs, meaning that they can accept power from most mains supplies throughout the world, with rated frequencies from 50 Hz to 60 Hz and voltages from 100 V to 240 V (although a manual voltage range switch may be required). In practice they will operate from a much wider frequency range and often from a DC supply as well. In 2006, Intel proposed the use of a single 12 V supply inside PCs, due to the high efficiency of switch mode supplies directly on the PCB.
The main advantage of this method is greater efficiency because the switching transistor dissipates little power in the saturated state and the off state compared to the semiconducting state (active region). Other advantages include smaller size and lighter weight (from the elimination of low frequency transformers which have a high weight) and lower heat generation due to higher efficiency. Disadvantages include greater complexity, the generation of high amplitude, high frequency energy that the low-pass filter must block to avoid electromagnetic interference (EMI), and a ripple voltage at the switching frequency and the harmonic frequencies thereof.
SMPS can be classified into four types according to the input and output waveforms:
AC in, DC out: rectifier, off-line converter input stage, DC in, DC out: voltage converter, or current converter, or DC to DC converter, AC in, AC out: frequency changer, cycloconverter , DC in, AC out: inverter .