Bias Power Intros 0.25W Standby AC/DC Power Supply

BIAS Power Technology Inc. (Palatine, IL), founded earlier this year, formally announced its first products this week. The 0.25W standby ac/dc power supply is packaged in a one-inch cube and is intended to offer a higher efficiency alternative to linear regulators. "The BIAS power supply provides 50 percent efficiency, far above the traditional methods of supplying standby power," stated Bharat Shah, BIAS' VP of marketing and sales. "The power levels needed to maintain standby functions are very low; in most cases less then 0.25W is sufficient. Main power supplies in electronic devices do not have the capability to support standby requirements, so they reach only 2 to 10 percent efficiency," Bharat continued. As the use of appliances that include timers, displays and other features that draw power continuously increases, the best solution is a second low-wattage power supply. The BIAS supply operates from 85 to 265Vac and is based on a patented, line-synchronous switching technology. The combination of its unique single pulse per line cycle operation and full potting, enable the device to satisfy FCC Class B requirements without external components. Typical applications for these power supplies are expected to include powerline monitors, automatic meter readers, cable line splitters, fiber optic repeaters, household appliances, computers, monitors, office equipment, and so on. In OEM volumes, pricing is $3 per unit.