How to Determine a Power Supply Lifespan
CONTENT:
Power supplies are at the core of most equipment, powering machines, and devices across a wide range of industries and applications. For their importance, power supplies need to be carefully selected for any electric circuit design projects. Among the several factors to consider, the quality and reliability of their components should not be underlooked.
Besides considering its quality, engineers should also take into consideration the power supply's expected lifetime. This aspect gives a rough supposition of the time period during which the power supply will be able to power the selected equipment without incurring malfunctioning or other issues.
To support engineers in their power supply selection, we have gathered some more details on a power supply's life expectancy and other related information.
More About a Power Supply's Life Expectancy
A power supply's lifetime represents an important reference for calculating the timeline for future maintenance and replacement. This factor is even more crucial when a power supply's failure could generate negative consequences or even harm the people involved in the use of the equipment it powers. Power supplies can indeed be used in environments where safety is a crucial aspect to consider, for example, in the case of healthcare and railway applications.
When a power supply reaches the limits of its lifespan, its performance and efficiency might be affected by a significant decrease. In a power supply, the internal electrolytic capacitor in AC/DC power supplies has a finite lifetime and deteriorates over time. Eventually, the output voltage drops to the point where the power supply can not output power anymore. Before reaching this point, engineers should try to predict at what stage of its lifetime a power supply might need additional maintenance. Below we will dig deeper into some of the factors that can affect and allow engineers to predict a power supply's lifespan.
How to Determine a Power Supply Lifespan
A power supply's lifetime mostly depends on its usage and a certain degree of performance decrease should be foreseen after a certain period of time. However, there are also other factors that can help determine a power supply's lifetime. Some of these include the topology and applied ripple current, the design layout, the capacitor design lifetime, the capacitor temperature rating, and the local heating effect. Below we will review some of these factors more in detail:
● The type of electrolytic capacitors
In a power supply, electrolytic capacitors are the only component that wears out over time. So the type of electrolytic capacitor used in the design affects the lifespan of a power supply as well as the service life of the end application in the powered equipment.
● The ambient temperature
Engineers looking to guarantee a longer design lifespan of their power supplies should also consider the maximum rated ambient temperature of the intended application. Applied ripple currents represent another factor that could further heat the capacitor core of a power supply. By considering some of the operating conditions of a power supply, engineers will be able to make the power supply components last longer in a given application and ambient temperature.
● The frequency of operation
Besides the ambient temperature and local heating effects, engineers should also consider the frequency of operation of a power supply in the intended application. Power supplies employed in a less power-intense application will experience a significantly longer lifespan than those used in equipment powered 24/7.
Besides the factors mentioned above, selecting quality components can also help designers guarantee a longer lifespan of a power supply in the end application. Quality can be determined by the standards and certifications to which the power supply conforms. Selecting a power supply manufacturer with many years of experience also increases the potential reliability of a power supply and its components.
MORNSUN's Power Supply Solutions
The service life of a power supply's electrolytic capacitors is an increasingly key design parameter to be considered. Indeed, as power density demands are increasing, there is even less room for malfunctions or performance decreases in a power supply.
With an industry-wide trend for more compact power supply circuit design, it is even more crucial to guarantee a longer lifespan of each component. MORNSUN has over two decades of experience in securing the longest life expectancy possible for a power supply. Be it for an AC/DC converter or DC/DC converter, or other electrical components, engineers can rest assured of the quality, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of MORNSUN's power supply solutions.
Contact us to ask us any questions or to request a sample of our power supplies for your intended application.
