Sinrace Power Supply Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.

Output accuracy or regulation is specified in many different ways by various manufacturers. It should encompass line regulation, load regulation, cross regulation (for multiple output supplies), transient response, initial set accuracy and temperature coefficient. These parameters can be specified over differing input ranges, load ranges, load step changes and temperature ranges etc. While these items can be presented in many ways the majority of single output supplies will have comparable performance. Perhaps the most important consideration is for multiple output units where the performance can be very different.
Single output power supplies rarely require a minimum load but multiple output units often require minimum loads on one or more outputs and this should be made clear on the product data. Minimum loads are normally specified to reduce the effects of cross regulation between outputs and to maintain the output accuracy within the specified limits. These minimum loads will need to be considered in the system design and where necessary components added to ensure that they are met.

As standby/no load power consumption requirements reduce, the addition of minimum loads is becoming a real system performance issue and other solutions are required, particularly in low power applications where features such as inhibit are rare due to market cost requirements and the primary control systems in general use.