What are the different types of power supplies?

The term “power supply” can be misleading as it does not actually supply power but converts it from one form to another. And it can be generic, as a power supply can make a lot of different types of conversions.

An AC to AC power supply is one of the simplest power supplies that, at its most simple, is only a transformer. Many power supplies also include additional components for protection and to clean the signal.

An AC to DC power supply is the most common power supply that converts wall AC power to the DC power that modern electronics use. They generally include a transformer, a rectifier, a regulator, and a filter to provide a clean, consistent signal.

A DC to DC power supply uses a DC input to output a DC signal of a different voltage. Generally based on a buck or boost converter design, these are often used when pulling power from a DC power source, such as batteries, or in a design that requires multiple DC voltages from a single source.

DC-AC

A DC to AC power supply is commonly known as an inverter, as it inverts a DC signal into an AC sine wave. These inverters can create true sine-waves or, in more inexpensive inverters, the output will be simple AC square waves.