Abstract:
A transformerless power supply is disclosed in which a source capacitor has its charge maintained at a fraction of the AC supply voltage and a plurality of sink capacitors are sequentially switched between a charging connection to the source capacitor and a discharging connection to a load circuit. The load circuit is isolated from the line at all times to maintain safety protection. The use of a comparatively high switching speed will reduce the filter requirements in the load circuit and this together with the elimination of the transformer results in very substantial size and weight reductions from conventional supplies. Voltage regulation at the load is achieved by controlling the voltage to which the sink capacitors are charged from the source capacitor.