Buck converter

Uncommon card · No. 97339

A buck converter or step-down converter is a DC-to-DC converter which decreases voltage, while increasing current, from its input (supply) to its output (load). It is a class of switched-mode power supply. Switching converters (such as buck converters) provide much greater power efficiency as DC-to-DC converters than linear regulators, which are simpler circuits that dissipate power as heat, but do not step up output current. The efficiency of buck converters can be very high, often over 90%, making them useful for tasks such as converting a computer's main supply voltage, which is usually 12 V, down to lower voltages needed by USB, DRAM and the CPU, which are usually 5, 3.3 or 1.8 V. Buck converters typically contain at least two semiconductors (a diode and a transistor, although modern buck converters frequently replace the diode with a second transistor used for synchronous rectification) and at least an inductor as energy storage element, usually in combination with a capacitor. To...

Read on Wikipedia · Image No machine-readable author provided. CyrilB~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0