Design Ideas: January 20, 1994

By using a cheap, readily available MOSFET, you can use a single-pole switch to turn a bipolar power supply on and off without consuming extra power. In Fig 1, the switch simply controls the MOSFET gate, which switches on the negative supply. Resistor R, which can be several megohms, is not necessary if the ±6V rails are permanently connected to a load, such as an op-amp circuit. Because the MOSFET's RDS(ON) is a fraction of an ohm, power loss is minimal, and the circuit suits moderate-consumption, battery-operated circuitry.