Design issues in regulated and unregulated intermediate bus converters

Recently the use of nonisolated point of load converters (niPOLs) powered from an intermediate bus converter (IBC) has become very popular. This paper looks at the design issues facing the designer of the intermediate bus converter when determining whether the intermediate bus voltage should be regulated or unregulated. It looks at the pros and cons of various regulation methods from a design and also from the perspective of the end customer.