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REFERENCE DESIGN PREVENTS POWER THEFT

Some people respond to the high cost of energy by stealing it. To prove that fact, Metering.com recently published a report showing that, in some countries, tampering with meters accounts for 5% of illegally consumed electricity. That tampering doesn’t happen just in Third World countries, either: The report estimates that losses in the United States are approximately 4%. According to Silvestro Fimiani, productmarketing manager for the company, the most common way to disable meters is to use a large permanent magnet to provide an intense external magneticfield.

Addressing this problem, Power Integrations has published a reference design based on its Link- Switch XT family. The design, for an isolated power supply in flyback configuration, delivers 150 mA at 5V, and an external magnetic field does not affect it. It also consumes just 1W and produces the regulated 750 mW that advanced meter electronicsrequire.

Power Integrations, www.powerint.com.