Switching Power Supplies: A to Z
by Sanjaya Maniktala, Published by Newnes
ISBN 0-7506-7970-0, hardback, 528 pp, $59.95
EN-Genius Reviewer: Dennis L. Feucht

This book covers basic engineering analysis and design principles for switching power supplies. While deriving basic engineering equations for the three inductive-switch configurations (buck, boost, buck-boost) and their more common derivative topologies (forward, half-bridge, flyback, etc.), the author also includes many practical tips that are important for optimized design. The style of writing in the book is informal and the author attempts to be as explanatory as possible. He includes the necessary math but tends to emphasize development of an intuition for converter behavior. Consequently, this book is recommended especially for those new to power conversion. Emphasis is also on how to design, though the necessary analysis is included.

This book is circuits-oriented. A whole Chapter (5), for instance, is about conduction and switching losses. Its successor is on circuit-board layout. The book has worked examples and many design tips and techniques for magnetics design and for EMI, to which Chapters 8 through 13 are directed. Another Chapter (3) addresses off-line converter design.

One long Chapter (7) titled "Feedback Loop Analysis and Stability" covers the control aspect, and derives some of the most important incremental transfer functions for the power-converter switching blocks of the three basic configurations. While not badly done, this Chapter does not cover the more complicated mathematics of sampling system dynamics. For instance, in describing slope compensation of current control, the slope value is given but without developing the rationale for it. In keeping with the level of depth in the rest of the book, this Chapter is consistent in not overwhelming the reader with these somewhat esoteric (yet significant) aspects of control. Yet they are needed to complete the feedback loop to do dynamic loop analysis.

The book is relatively complete in covering basic converter circuits and magnetics. It does not present subsequent developments such as the Cuk-derived topologies, nor does it divert into side-shows such as switched-capacitor converters. The large Appendix and a Chapter of FAQs throw in some of the many application-specific converter circuits, such as (pp 476 - 480) fluorescent-lamp drivers, or "ballasts." This book is content-rich and must be worth whatever Newnes is pricing it at.

Is there is better book on the subject than this one? The book to beat on the topic of switching power conversion is Fundamentals of Power Electronics, Second Edition, by Erickson and Macsimovic, 2001, Kluwer Academic Publishers. The book under review does not beat it but helps to complete it. Fundamentals has perhaps a wider range of coverage, but A to Z is highly complementary and more optimal as a circuits-oriented introduction to converters. Fundamentals covers topics in a more rigorously thorough and systematic manner (such as the sampling-system control aspects) while A to Z comes across with a practical design viewpoint, and is more thorough on useful circuit details. The only criticism I have of the book (and it is mild) is that the informal style is taken to the point in places of being unscientific, treating physical reality as having personality. The author does, however, bubble over with enthusiasm for switching power supplies.