If you have been wondering about what exactly goes into a Apple MacBook Charger, you might be interested in a new teardown which has been conducted by Ken Shirriff and reveals the complex workings of an Apple MacBook Charger for all to see.
As you can see from the image above Apple has packed in a shoot amount of technology in their Macbook charger with many components working together to provide continuous smooth power to your laptop.
Shirriff explains more :
For the teardown I started with a Macbook 85W power supply, model A1172, which is small enough to hold in your palm. The picture below shows several features that can help distinguish the charger from counterfeits: the Apple logo in the case, the metal (not plastic) ground pin on the right, and the serial number next to the ground pin.
The diagram above labels the main components of the charger. AC power enters the charger and is converted to DC. The PFC circuit (Power Factor Correction) improves efficiency by ensuring the load on the AC line is steady. The primary chops up the high-voltage DC from the PFC circuit and feeds it into the transformer. Finally, the secondary receives low-voltage power from the transformer and outputs smooth DC to the laptop. The next few sections discuss these circuits in more detail, so follow along with the diagram below.
The PFC circuit uses a power transistor to precisely chop up the input AC tens of thousands of times a second; contrary to what you might expect, this makes the load on the AC line smoother. Two of the largest components in the charger are the inductor and PFC capacitor that help boost the voltage to about 380 volts DC.
For more information on the new Apple macbook Charger teardown jump over to the Ken Shirriff website for details via the link below.
Source: Adafruit : Ken Shirriff
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