What is Thermal Gasket?

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Thermal Gasket: Flexible pad or wafer with a very low thermal resistance that is put between a power module base plate and heat sink to ensure the high thermal conductivity across the junction.

CB-Scheme: The IECEE CB Scheme is an international system for mutual acceptance of test reports and certificates dealing with the safety of electrical and electronic components, equipment and products. It is a multilateral agreement among participating countries and certification organizations. A manufacturer utilizing a CB test certificate issued by one of the accepted National Certification Bodies (NCBs) can obtain certification marks of the latter, within their scope of adherence, in the countries where the accepted NCBs are located. CB-Scheme home page
CFM: Cubic feet per minute, which is a measure of the volume of air flowing in a system.
Canadian Standards Association (CSA): Independent organization that establishes and tests safety standards for electronic components and systems for the Canadian marketplace. CSA home page
Case: See Enclosure
Case Temperature: Temperature of the case when the converter and surrounding system are operating normally. Often used as a specification for converters with extended temperature ranges. Case temperature is at times referred to as Base Plate Temperature.
Common: Conductive path used as a return for two or more circuits. Common is used interchangeably with ground, which is not technically correct unless it is connected to earth.
See Ground
Common Mode Noise: Noise component that is common to both the converter output and return lines with respect to the input ground.
Conducted EMI: Also called radio frequency interface (RFI) EMI is unwanted high-frequency energy caused by the power transformer rectifiers, in adaptors. That portion that is present on the input and output lines is known as Conducted EMI. Most Conducted EMI measurements are one between 150KHz and 30MHz.
See Radiated EMI
Conduction Cooled: Cooling a converter via a solid material. Cools a power converter by adding a heat sink or attaching a module to the system chasis or thermal conductive plastic enclosure.
See Convection Cooled
Constant Current Power Supply: A regulated power supply which acts to keep its output current constant in spite of changes in load, line, or temperature. Thus, for a change in load resistance, the output current remains constant to a first approximation, while the output voltage changes by whatever amount necessary to accomplish this.
Constant Voltage Power Supply: A regulated power supply which acts to keep its output voltage constant in spite of changes in load, line, or temperature. Thus, for a change in load resistance, the output voltage of this type of supply remains constant to a first approximation, while the output current changes by whatever amount necessary to accomplish this.
Constant Voltage/Constant Current (CV/CC) with automatic crossover: A power supply which acts as a constant voltage source for comparatively large values of load resistance and as a constant current source for comparatively small values of load resistance. The automatic crossover or transition between these two modes of operation occurs at a “critical” or “crossover” value of load resistance.
Constant Voltage/Current Limiting (CV/CL) with automatic crossover: The same as CV/CC operation except for a slightly poorer regulation characteristic for low values of load resistance, i.e., in the”constant current” region of operation.
Convection Cooled: Cooling of converter via the movement of air over the surface of its heat dissipating components. “Freeair convection” means that the natural movement of air(unassisted by fan or blower) is sufficient to maintain a converter within specified operating limits.
See Conduction Cooled
Cross Regulation: For a multiple output converter, the change in voltage on one output (expressed as a percent) caused by a load change on another output.
Crowbar: Circuit that crowbars or rapidly shuts down a converters output if a preset voltage level is exceeded. The circuit places a low resistant shunt across the output when an overvoltage condition exists.
Current Limit Knee: On a plot of output voltage vs current, the point at which current begins to limit (or foldback).
Current Limiting: Feature that protects the converter (or load) from damage under overload conditions. The maximum converter output current is automatically limited to a predetermined, safe value. If the converter is specified for auto restart, normal operation is automatically restored when overload condition is restored.

Glossary of power supply terms