Measuring Peak-to-Peak Output Voltage: Magna-Power Electronics shares its method

Switching power supplies utilize power semiconductors to switch between conducting and nonconducting states. Together with passive filters, waveforms of different magnitudes can be produced by defining the on/off periods of the switching states. Efficient power conversion requires switching periods in the order of 25-500 ns, which produce unwanted voltage transients at the output terminals of the power supply. Further transients can be produced by silicon diodes during the reverse recovery period of current. Reducing the magnitude of switching voltage transients is difficult and depends on careful placement of low-impedance capacitors physically located across the output connections of the power supply. The measurement of these transients requires a special setup to obtain repeatable results.