Programmable Custom Power Supplies
Some custom power supply manufacturers also produce programmable power supplies. They sell these in addition to the standard models.
Embedded engineers are using programmable custom power supplies in a variety of industries such as semiconductor fabrication, oil exploration, solar array, defense and commercial automatic test equipment, avionics, battery string simulation, compliance testing and general R&D.
The manufacturer should have deep application knowledge and proven power supply integration capabilities. Digital controls are now popular in custom power supplies also. But there are two meanings here. It is easy to confuse one for another.
First, there is digital power management and second, there is digital power conversion. In digital power management, customers can interact with the power supply to adjust parameters like current limit, voltage and monitor the status of the power supply. In digital power conversion, the embedded engineer replaces the control loop on the power supply analog with a digital control loop.
One of the major benefits of using a programmable custom power supply is the flexibility. They allow you to achieve specific optimizations without having to spend time and money on changing hardware.
Another way to look at it is, a programmable custom power supply can handle additional responsibilities at a lower cost. These systems allow you to handle complex applications that traditionally needed multiple systems.
