Design 5V DC Power Supply (Easy Step By

Step Guide 2022)

Abbas

Hay there! I hope you are doing great. You landed here because you
are looking for some help to design a 5V power supply on your own?

Well then, I welcome you here. In this article, we will just not design a
power supply but also get to know about design calculations and all the
steps involved.

The goal of this article, a guided project, is to share my knowledge with

you people so that you became capable of designing your power supply
according to your own requirements and specifications.

The power supply which we will design here is a linear technology-

based design. I will go through you each design step, try to present
everything in simple language, and will carry out some design
mathematics along the way i.e. if a capacitor is being used in the
schematic, you should know why it is there, and how its value is
calculated.
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In the end, we will have a power supply with (just for giving you a rough
idea):

 Fixed 5V (DC) output voltage

 Output Current (DC): 250mA
 Ripple factor: up to 3%
 Input voltage (RMS): 220V (AC)
 Features of over current and voltage protection.
 With reverse bias protection.
 Load and line regulations are in the range of 3%.

Hopefully, you will enjoy this post and will learn something.

Table of Contents [hide]
 The design of 5V DC power supply
 General Block diagram of a power supply
 o a. The input transformer
o b. The rectifier circuit
o c. The filter
o d. The regulator
 Circuit diagram of 5V DC power supply
 Step by step method to design 5V DC power supply
o Step 1: The selection of regulator IC
o Step 2: The selection of transformer
o  Step 3: The selection of diodes for the bridge
o Step 4: The Selection of smoothing capacitor and calculations
o Step 5: Making the power supply safe
 Conclusion

The design of 5V DC power supply

You know, a power supply circuit is a very basic circuit in learning
electronics. Almost everyone in their electronics learning journey tries to
make it. And I can not tell you how much fun it is when you finish your
first power supply design, test it, and it works fine.

Alright!

The design of any circuit begins with a well-made general block

diagram. It helps us to design the sections of the circuit individually and
then at the end put them together to have a complete circuit, ready for
use.

General Block diagram of a power supply

The general block diagram for this project is given below. It is very
simple. It has the following four main sub-blocks.

 The Transformer
 The Rectifier Circuit
 The Filter
 The Regulator

First, I will explain each block in general and then we will go for
designing. I think you need to understand which block is doing what
first.
So, let’s try to understand each section one by one.

a. The input transformer

A transformer is a device that can step up or step down voltage levels,
following the law of conversation of energy.

The question is, why do we need it in our supply design?

Well, depending on your country, AC coming to your home has a

voltage level of 220/120 V(RMS). We need the input transformer to step
down the incoming AC to our required lower level i.e. close to 5V
(DC). This lower level is further used by other blocks to get the required
5V DC.

A transformer is a device that is used to step up or step down the AC

voltages level, keeping the input and out power the same.
Be careful when playing with this device.

As you are using the main supply voltage which can be too dangerous.
Never touch any of the terminals with bare hands or with bad
instruments. Have a good and decent non-contact voltage tester, and
use it to always be sure of which line is the live wire coming to the
transformer.

b. The rectifier circuit

If you are thinking the transformer just stepped down the voltage to 5V
DC. I am sorry, you are wrong like once I was. The stepped-down
voltage is still AC. To convert it into DC, you need a good rectifier
circuit.

A rectifier circuit is the combination of diodes arranged in such a

manner that converts AC into DC voltage levels.
Without the rectifier circuit, it is not possible to have the required output
5V DC voltage. This circuit comes in nice integrated packages or you
can make it using four diodes as well. You will see how we design it in
later sections.

Basically, there are two types of rectifier circuits; half-wave and full-
wave. However, the one which we are interested in is a full rectifier, as it
is more power-efficient than the first one.

c. The filter
Nothing is ideal in practical electronics. The rectifier circuit converts the
incoming AC to DC but unluckily it does not make it a pure DC. The
output of the rectifier is pulsating and is called pulsating DC. This
pulsating DC is not considered good to power up sensitive devices.
So, the rectified DC is not very clean and has ripples. It is the job of the
filter to filter out these ripples and to make the voltage compatible for
regulation.

A capacitor filter is used when we need to convert a pulsating DC into

pure or to remove distortion from signal
A rule of thumb is DC voltage must have less than 10 percent ripples to
be regulated perfectly.

The best filter in our case is the capacitor. You may have heard, that a
capacitor is a charge storing device. But actually, it can be best used as
a filter. It is the most inexpensive filter for our basic 5V power supply
design.

d. The regulator
A regulator is the linear integrated circuit used to provide a regulated
constant output voltage. Voltage regulation is very important because
we do not need a change in output voltage when the load changes.

An output voltage independent of the load is always required. The

Regulator IC not just makes the output voltage independent of varying
loads, but also from line voltage changes.
A regulator is the integrated circuit used to give a constant output
voltage regardless of input voltage changes.
I hope you have developed some basic concepts of power supply
design.  let’s go further with the actual circuit diagram for our specific 5V
DC power supply design.

Circuit diagram of 5V DC power supply

Below is the circuit diagram for the said project. You get the main
supply; voltage and frequency can depend on your country, fuse; to
protect the circuit, transformer, rectifier, capacitor filter, an LED
indicator, and the regulator IC.

The block diagram is implemented in NI Multisim software, good

simulation software for students and electronics beginners. I encourage
spending some time playing with it.

Now, let’s get into the actual design.

Step by step method to design 5V DC power

supply
Here is the deal, we will design each section first, and then put together
each of them to have our DC power supply ready to power up our
projects.
So let’s get started step by step.

You are thinking, that I would start the design explanation from the
transformer but it is not the case. A transformer is not selected at the
very first.

Step 1: The selection of regulator IC

The selection of a regulator IC depends on your output voltage. In our
case, we are designing for the 5V output voltage, we will select the
LM7805 linear regulator IC.

In the design process, the next thing is, that we need to know the
voltage, current, and power ratings of the selected regulator IC. This is
done by using the datasheet of the regulator IC.

The following are the datasheet provided ratings and pin diagram for
LM7805.

The datasheet of 7805 also prescribes to use of a 0.1μF capacitor at the

output side to avoid transient changes in the voltages due to changes in
load. And a 0.33μF at the input side of the regulator to avoid ripples if
the filtering is far away from the regulator.

Just for extra knowledge, for positive voltage output, we use LM78XX.
XX indicates the value of output voltage and 78 indicates positive
output. For negative voltage output use LM79XX, 79 indicates negative
voltage and XX indicates the value of output.

Step 2: The selection of transformer

The right transformer selection means saving a lot of money. We got to
know, that the minimum input to our selected regulator IC is 7V (See
above datasheet values). So, we need a transformer to step down the
main AC to at least this value.

But, between the regulator and secondary side of the transformer, there
is a diode bridge rectifier too. The rectifier has its own voltage drop
across it i.e. 1.4V. We need to compensate for this value as well.

So mathematically:

This means we should select the transformer with a secondary voltage

value equal to 6V (RMS) or at least 10% more than 6V (RMS).
From these points, for the 5V DC power supply design, we can
select a transformer of current rating 1A and a secondary voltage
of 6V (RMS).

Why is 1A current? Because the regulator IC has a current rating of 1A,

meaning we cannot pass more current than this value. Selecting a
transformer with a current rating more than this will cost extra money.
And we don’t need it.

 Step 3: The selection of diodes for the bridge

You see in the circuit diagram, the rectifier circuit is made by arranging
diodes in some patterns. To make a rectifier we need to select the
proper diodes for it. When selecting a diode for the bridge circuit. Keep
in mind the output load current, and maximum secondary voltage of the
transformer i-e 6V(RMS) in our case.

Instead of individual diodes, you can also use one individual bridge that
comes in an IC package. But I don’t want you to use it here, just for the
purpose of learning and playing with individual diodes.

The selected diode must have the current rating more than the load
current (i.e. in this case is 250mA). And peak reverse voltage (PIV)
more than peak secondary transformer voltage.
We select the IN4001 diode because it has a current rating of 1A more
than our desired rating, and a peak reverse voltage of 50V. Peak
reverse voltage is the voltage a diode can sustain when it is reverse
biased.
Step 4: The Selection of smoothing capacitor and
calculations
Things we need to keep in mind while selecting a proper capacitor filter
are, its voltage, power rating, and capacitance value. The voltage rating
is calculated from the secondary voltage of a transformer.

The rule of thumb is, that the capacitor voltage rating must be at least
20% more than the secondary voltage. So, if the secondary voltage is
8.4 V (Peak value for 6V (RMS)), then your capacitor voltage rating
must be at least 50V.

Second, we need to calculate the proper capacitance value. It depends

upon the output voltage and the ripple factor (the effectiveness measure
of the capacitor filter). If you remember I shared, in the beginning, that
we want to design a 5v power supply for at least a 3% ripple factor.

Calculations for capacitor value in power supply design:

Now, this value of the capacitor is not a standard one. Remember in
most of your designs you will not have a standard value all the time. A
good practice is always to choose the close one to your theoretical
value.

I use this online calculator, Standard value solver, which helps me to

choose the nearest standard value to my theoretical values. And for this
above value the nearest value is 470uF.

So, the capacitor which we gonna use for our design is 470uF

Step 5: Making the power supply safe

Every design must have a safety feature to protect it from burning.
Similarly, our simple supply must have one i.e. the input fuse. The input
fuse will protect our supply in case of overloading.

For example, our desired load can handle 500mA. If in case our load
starts to miss behave, there is a chance of burring of components. The
fuse will protect our supply.

A rule of thumb for selecting the fuse rating is, it must be at least 20%
more than the load current.
The simple power supply we designed has the capability to deliver 1A
current, which in some cases you can use it for. If you decide to use it
for such cases, then don’t forget to attach a heat sink to the regulator
IC.

Conclusion
For me, if you are an electronics hobbyist or beginner, learning some
basic electronics, I would recommend you design your own lab power
supply.

It will help you learn electronics as well as give you the best lab power
supply.

I call it the best one because you will make it yourself. And I cannot put
it in words how much fun it is to play with electronics in a safe
environment. It is like learning from doing

Please do not specify the above power supply we designed it to just be

a 250mA supply. It can be your 5V DC power supply in general with up
to 250mA current capability. This means you can use it for the current
range of 0 – 250mA. Far from this range, the power supply will degrade
its performance as it is only designed for this range.

And this was what I know how to design a 5v dc power supply.

Hopefully, it was some kind of help to you.

Thank you and have a good life