As each area of technology with a potential for significantly impacting any major segment of the electronics industry evolves, it often is accompanied by the development of a succession of new circuits. Each new circuit indeed appears different, employing different components in differing configurations, and claims an assortment of distinct features of "improved performance. " Without a considerable investment of laboratory time to construct, evaluate, and compare each candidate circuit, it usually is difficult to realistically appraise the relative merits of one approach over another. It often is even more difficult to identify the underlying principles which point up basic similarities and differences. Such is the situation in the new and rapidly expanding area known as electronic power processing or switching mode power supplies. The area of switching power supplies has been spurred by the need for power sources of higher performance, smaller volume, and lighter weight in order to achieve compatibility with the shrinking size of all forms of communication and data handling systems, and particularly with the portable battery-operated equipment in everything from horne appliances and handtools to mobile com munication equipment. Static dc-to-dc converters and dc-to-ac inverters provide a natural interface with the new direct energy sources such as solar cells, fuel cells, thermoelectric generators, and the like, and form the central ingredient in most uninterruptable power sources.
