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Concept
DC-to-DC converter
Summary
A DC-to-DC converter is an electronic circuit or electromechanical device that converts a source of direct current (DC) from one voltage level to another. It is a type of electric power converter. Power levels range from very low (small batteries) to very high (high-voltage power transmission).
Antique radio#Car radios
Before the development of power semiconductors, one way to convert the voltage of a DC supply to a higher voltage, for low-power applications, was to convert it to AC by using a vibrator, then by a step-up transformer, and finally a rectifier. Where higher power was needed, a motor–generator unit was often used, in which an electric motor drove a generator that produced the desired voltage. (The motor and generator could be separate devices, or they could be combined into a single "dynamotor" unit with no external power shaft.) These relatively inefficient and expensive designs were used only when there was no alternative, as to power a car radio (which then used thermionic valves (tubes) that require much higher voltages than available from a 6 or 12 V car battery). The introduction of power semiconductors and integrated circuits made it economically viable by use of techniques described below. For example, first is converting the DC power supply to high-frequency AC as an input of a transformer - it is small, light, and cheap due to the high frequency — that changes the voltage which gets rectified back to DC. Although by 1976 transistor car radio receivers did not require high voltages, some amateur radio operators continued to use vibrator supplies and dynamotors for mobile transceivers requiring high voltages although transistorized power supplies were available.
While it was possible to derive a lower voltage from a higher with a linear regulator or even a resistor, these methods dissipated the excess as heat; energy-efficient conversion became possible only with solid-state switch-mode circuits.
High-voltage direct current
DC-to-DC converters are used in portable electronic devices such as cellular phones and laptop computers, which are supplied with power from batteries primarily.
Official source
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