% !TEX root = master.tex
\subsubsection{Linear Regulators}
Linear regulators are typically more expensive from a heat dissipation perspective. In our application, we will have a decent amount of current flowing through the regulators as discussed above. As a result, linear regulators tend to heat up, and will require significant heat sinking on the board. Heat sinking in our case simply will include having a copper plane on both sides of the board connected with vias which will allow the heat to dissipate rather than destroy the rectifier. 

Though they are  more expensive from a heat dissipation perspective, they are much cheaper in terms of price. Because linear regulators are relatively simple, they are typically cheaper and more simple to produce. This is a consideration towards their application in a final product, however even with the slight savings in cost, we are only using 3 of them in the board in total, and with modern advances in technology both linear regulators and switching regulators are far under a dollar typically. As a result, cost efficiency is not a huge consideration when making a decision between the two parts.

Linear Regulators are also far less efficient than switching regulators. That being said, they do have a slight advantage in a very specific case. If the input and desired output voltage decreases to be very close to each other, the linear regulator becomes more efficient. In fact, typically the efficiency reaches 95+ percent efficient in this case. This characteristic means that the regulator is very efficient in a very niche situation. However, a simple analysis of our design shows that this niche application is not included in the product. The voltage difference between input and output required to observe such high efficiencies is typically much less than one volt. So, one could consider the design implementation that we have included. There are three voltage changes to consider. Immediately following the rectifier, there is a 12V output regulator. The input to this regulator is typically around 18-24V, depending on the particular rectifier. As a result, the difference between input and output over this regulator is anywhere from 6 to 12 volts, which is far to high for a linear regulator to be an efficient solution. Immediately following the 12V regulator is the other two rectifiers. This 12VDC output will be the shared source for the other two regulators. So, the 5V regulator will have a difference in voltage of 7 volts, and the 3.3 volt regulator will have a difference of 8.7 volts. Clearly, neither of these voltage differences is small enough to satisfy the niche case required for an efficient linear regulator. As a result, we will probably be implementing a switching regulator, which will be discussed in the next section.

\subsubsection{Switching regulators}
Switching regulators are most likely the solution we will implement in the final design in terms of regulating various voltages that we need for DC supplies to the microprocessor, the bluetooth module, and the LED matrix. As briefly mentioned above, there are three places in the design of the product that require us to have regulators, and we intend on simplifying the bill of materials by using a variable switching regulator. This allows us to buy three of the same regulator rather than three separate parts all with fixed output values. In order to set the variable regulators to the proper value, typically a resistor matrix is used to voltage divide some reference voltage. So then having separate values for resistors allows us to have the same regulator part, and have three separate outputs of our desired values in order to run the board.

Switching regulators have several benefits over the linear regulators discussed above. They are high efficiency in all cases, not just one particular niche case when the input and output voltages are similar in value. Also, the heat production of these parts is very low in comparison. However, this does not become a problem in either case simply because our goal is to design the board in such a way that heat sinking would be present in all locations of regulators, and as a result for our power consumption the heat sinks would be sufficient along with the internal heat sink included with the regulator to dissipate the heat enough so that the temperature would not damage the device, or any other devices int he vicinity of the part. 

Though there are several benefits to using switching regulators, there are some issues that arise. However, as mentioned, the problems with linear regulators are far more concerning than the problems associated with the problems tied to switching regulators. Switching regulators are typically more complex to build and manufacture than linear regulators. As a result, they are typically more expensive than a linear regulator of the same output voltage. However, the price difference is not significant enough to warrant any concern. The physical size of the package to go on the board is also typically larger dimensionally, but in the same way that price is not of large concern, board space is also not particularly limited as the mounting of the board has a large amount of space to go. As a result, the concern about dimensions is almost irrelevant. There is one major concern that needs to be taken into account using switching regulators over linear regulators. That is that noise and ripple could be implemented dependent on the switching rate of the switching regulator. This can be neutralized by 10 pico farad capacitors located a the output of the regulator. It is also important to keep the switching regulator output as close to the next input as possible, as this will remove any chance for the trace to work as an antenna and introduce further noise. In the case where the 5V source is supplying the LED matrix, it is typicallly not possible to get the trace to be as short as we desire, so it is expected that ripple and noise will be included through that line. However, we can avoid that through capacitors as mentioned, and it is also important to remember that it is not likely that a small amount of ripple should affect the overall functionality of the product. It will be important to test the product after completion, which is discussed in section 5, in order to ensure that this assumption made about ripple is correct.

%\subsection{Power Supply Considerations}

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