System design concepts for a compact power system featuring 250 W rectifiers

One of the trends in telecommunications power is towards small and compact power systems. The compact power system needs to be redefined and re-engineered because of the trend of electronics to move from the central office to the loop. Remote sites impose different sets of requirements. To achieve this goal, the system concept has to be optimized. The interaction between the different elements in a standard power system, which are the controller, the rectifiers, the low voltage disconnect and the distribution, are discussed. Issues concerning convection cooling vs. fan cooling for thermal management, circuit breakers vs. fuses for protection, different types of alarm indication, low voltage disconnect vs. battery disconnect, solid state switches vs. magnetic contactors and power limit vs. current limit are compared and evaluated in the context of a small power system. All the elements for a compact 500 watt power system are described in the paper.