I built all the low voltage MCU based electronics for my team's solar race cars in college. Power efficiency is a huge deal for a solar powered race car. One of the first pieces I designed was a standalone switching regulator PCB with a 3 pin interface, then made many dozens of them. I then used them in all of my other boards.
Years later after I graduated and left the team, I heard that the folk that took over went through and replaced all the switching regulators with linear ones. I asked them why, and they said someone told them the quiescent draw was lower for linear regulators. I asked them if it was really worth the significantly reduced efficiency dropping from 12V to 3.3V, and they didn't seem to understand what I was talking about. Oops!
The eagle file is probably rattling around somewhere on my hard drive. It was back in 2005 or so, though. I had very little idea what I was doing back then. I just followed the reference schematic from the switching IC's datasheet. It had the IC, an inductor, and some size 1206 resistors and capacitors.
Years later after I graduated and left the team, I heard that the folk that took over went through and replaced all the switching regulators with linear ones. I asked them why, and they said someone told them the quiescent draw was lower for linear regulators. I asked them if it was really worth the significantly reduced efficiency dropping from 12V to 3.3V, and they didn't seem to understand what I was talking about. Oops!