11.1 – Introduction

As its name suggests, a power supply delivers electrical energy to an electrical load. Medical grade power supplies can vary their voltage to meet the power needs of different equipment. These power supplies may also look similar to commercial grade power supplies but are designed to meet a different set of standards. We will start off our discussion by introducing power supplies and relate how this equipment is able to step down 120VAC mains power into a pure DC output at a level that can be used by biomedical equipment. Next we discuss common types of power supplies and items to consider when purchasing a power supply for your equipment. Finally, we end with the troubleshooting of power supplies and how to determine problems at each step of the power supply.

The second section in this chapter will discuss infant incubators. Similar to the power supply, the name (infant incubator) is predictive of its function. Although there may be several reasons why infants need an incubator, the purpose of this device is to ensure the infants temperature is at an ideal set point for that patient. We will provide an introduction to infant incubators and discuss their working principles.