As the difference between input and output voltages increases, so does the improvement in efficiency that a switching regulator offers. Unfortunately, as a switched-mode step-down converter's output ...

An isoquant shows combinations of capital and labor and the technological tradeoff between ... input, either labor or capital, can be substituted for the other while keeping the same output ...

In essence, it boosts weak dc signals with an output potential that can be 100,000X larger than the potential difference between input terminals. Op amps have been around since the early 1940s ...