Design of low-leakage power supply transformers for high-precision electronic instruments

In most electronic instruments, the magnetic interference generated by the power supply transformer induces noise in the measuring circuitry, limiting the overall precision of the instrument and significantly reducing its accuracy at low-level measurements. A method for reducing the intensity of the noise-signal, which is based on a low-leakage design of the power supply transformer, is presented, and its effectiveness is demonstrated through testing of a prototype designed and built according to the design procedure given here. Finite-element analysis is used to predict the magnetostatic performance of the transformer design prior to building a prototype. It is demonstrated that the finite-element analysis is an effective tool for saving time and resources in developing transformer prototypes