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Previous issues of update: Q2_2005 | Q3_2005 | Q4_2005

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PSMA UPDATE is published and distributed via e-mail quarterly by the Power Sources Manufacturers Association. Send editorial information and comments to:

Permission to reprint information and articles as published is granted: a courtesy line is appreciated.

Membership in PSMA is open to any organization or corporation involved in the power sources and supplies industry. For membership information, visit our website or contact us by fax, telephone or email.

If you or anyone in your company is interested in getting on the distribution list for future issues of PSMA UPDATE, please send e-mail to: power@psma.com. Be sure to include your name and the name of your company.

 

arch 19 through March 23, 2006 marks the dates for the single most significant event in the power electronics industry in the US and one of the tops in the world - APEC 2006 will be held at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas Texas. This year APEC is again the event not to be missed. APEC annually brings together the best and brightest minds to present and discuss the latest advancements in technology, business and industry trends. The conference will attract people from more than 32 countries participating in paper presentations, a sold out exhibition, three pithy rap sessions, the Micro Mouse competition and, in addition, a world class social event. Major reasons for attending APEC 2006 again this year are the opportunities to expand your technical and business knowledge and to network with people you know and people you should know. In addition, there will be papers presented by world renowned industry experts, leading individuals from the educational community and informational seminars unavailable anywhere else.

PSMA, one of the sponsors of APEC, along with IEEE, PELS and IAS, will be holding the Power Technology Roadmap Workshop on Saturday March 18, just before the start of APEC, and will be presenting a summary of the key results during the APEC plenary session - this has never been done before and will add extra value to both events. APEC also draws together many of the leading industry analysts, financial analysts, editors and press - they will all be participating in all aspects of APEC 2006.

The city of Dallas and the surrounding area have a tremendous technology base of companies that are deeply involved with leading edge power electronics in systems, business and technology. This includes a large contingent of organizations involved in semiconductors, contract design, contract manufacturing, electronic components, telecommunications, logistics, electronics distribution as well as world class universities. Dallas as the 9th largest city in the United States features both a large indigenous base of power electronics component suppliers as well as a large number of OEM users and power electronics customers in proximity to the conference. The beautiful and spacious Hyatt Regency Hotel provides a wonderful and convenient venue for APEC 2006.

This year we will again have a press room for our media participants and analysts to schedule meetings with exhibitors and companies participating in APEC.

If you are involved in any aspect of power electronics you won't want to miss being a part of APEC 2006. For more information see www.apec-conf.org

Provided by Kevin Parmenter,
Publicity Chair APEC 2006

he 2006 PSMA Annual Meeting will be held in conjunction with APEC 2006 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dallas, TX on Monday March 20. A buffet breakfast at 7:30 AM will precede the meeting and individuals from member companies as well non-member guests are invited to attend and participate in a full agenda of topics of interest to the industry. Outgoing Chairman Arnold Alderman will open the meeting and introduce the winners of the first PSMA APEC Attendance Grants. Arnold will also provide a brief overview of the past year and will introduce the new Chairmn, Bruce Miller and the other new PSMA Officers.

Regular Member company representatives will participate in the election of four new Directors to serve on the PSMA Board for a three-year term beginning immediately and ending at APEC 2009. The specific agenda for the meeting is posted in the News & Information section of the PSMA web site and includes reports from each of the technical committees, a report on APEC 2006 and a look ahead to APEC 2007, as well as a presentation of the results from the PSMA Workshop on the Power Technology Roadmap held the previous Saturday.

Members and guests are also invited to remain for the Board of Directors meeting that will immediately follow the Annual Meeting. Participation in these meetings will provide the opportunity for you to network with colleagues from other companies and to influence the direction of the PSMA organization and the power sources industry.

Another good way to get more out of your company membership in PSMA is to get personally involved with one of our active committees. The BMPS, Capacitor, Energy Efficiency, Industry-Education, Magnetics, Manufacturing, Marketing, Packaging and Semiconductor committees all plan to hold open meetings during the week of APEC 2006. The newly formed Alternative Energy Committee will also hold its first committee meeting that week. All are invited to participate or just drop in to hear and provide input as the activities are being planned for the coming year.

We look forward to meeting and talking with you at the PSMA booth outside the exhibition area. For the latest information on all of the activities planned during APEC 2006, visit us at www.psma.com.

nternational Rectifier (IR) (Symbol:IRF--NYSE) provides enabling technologies for products that work smarter, run cooler, and raise the world's productivity-per-watt. The world's largest industry is electronics, and over the long term, global demand for power electronics makes IR's role more important and our contribution more valuable. IR is powering the next generation of servers and computers, cars, satellites, and home appliances. We set performance and architecture standards for power electronics across a broad spectrum, and we're lengthening our competitive lead:

• IR technology makes variable-speed operation practical and affordable for everything from conveyor belts to washing machines.
• We allow laptop computers to run longer.
• We're raising the bar for vehicle performance and fuel economy with electronic steering and a host of other advances.

• We pioneered and hold key patents on technology that created the $3 billion power MOSFET industry.
• We focus completely on power chips and subsystems, and we create proprietary products that add more value to our customers' end products.
• Our high-volume dedicated fab sets the benchmark for cost in our industry.
• We invest aggressively in R&D, and we're generating a flow of highly-differentiated products targeted to high-growth applications.
• IR has the products, capacity, and cost structure to grow and build shareholder value.

• Input Devices such as diodes, rectifiers and thyristors that convert raw AC line power to appropriate DC levels;
• Control Devices such as switching controllers, linear regulators, MOS Gate Drivers and intelligent power switches to regulate the power conversion process;
• Switching Devices such as power MOSFETs, IGBTs and thyristors that are used to turn electrical loads on and off; and
• Output Devices such as Schottky and fast recovery diodes for regulating the flow of electrical energy into equipment with ratings from a few to several hundred amperes;
• Distribution Devices such as MOSFETs and Microelectronic Relays that distribute electrical energy to the load or electrical appliances of the world;
• Integrated Solutions such as analog ICs, advanced circuit devices, and power systems that optimize overall circuit and end product performance, providing more value in target applications.

Provided by Graham Robertson
Executive Director of
Global Corporate Communications
International Rectifier

oal Electronics USA, Inc. is the North America Subsidiary of Roal Electronic S.p.A, www.roalelectronics.com – an international company founded in 1985 in Castelfidardo in the Marche region of Italy.

In 2000 ROAL became a wholly owned subsidiary of ELICA Group www.elica.com a global leader in the design and production of high line, high quality home appliances. Since 1992 ROAL has been an ISO9001 certified company, and in 2002 ROAL also obtained the vision 2000 Extension certificate of ISO9001. Roal has the manufacturing process fully compliant to the RoHS 6.

ROAL Electronics specializes in designing, engineering, producing, testing and servicing of standard, modified standard and custom Switch Mode Power Supplies (SMPS), as well as power electronic board and electronic card assembly. Roal expertises allow a full understanding of the customer needs, providing the best suitable solutions for their systems and applications. The major markets ROAL serves are IT, Networking, Telecom, Medical, Test and Instrumentation Equipment, Self Service Terminals and Automatic Teller Machines, Industrial, Media and Entertainment, Optical projection and Video Displays. ROAL also has a dedicated team for the design of Motor and Power Control Boards for high line Home Appliances. In addition to power module and power supplies, ROAL provides custom and joint designs with customers, as well as advanced value added manufacturing services.

ROAL has patented the Digital Control Techniques and uses state-of-the-art Digital Power Management. The state-of-art techniques allow for precision, flexibility, scalability, efficiency, miniaturization, cost-effective solutions, communication, data storage, self-test or diagnostic capability, and dynamic manipulation of controlled parameters. These are just some of the major perceived advantages of the digital control in OEM systems and power converters. ROAL offers clients the ability to become involved early in the process of integration of the latest digital power management capabilities. Since power supplies are the most stressed component, ROAL uses a robust design approach, in which an appropriate qualification is mandatory. To reach and maintain high reliability, ROAL performs a complete product test qualification of worst case conditions in order to guarantee high product reliability and very low field failures. ROAL uses a complete component source and lot traceability at single board level.

ROAL is a world class High Technology Power Solution Provider; a cornerstone for mutual benefits and success for the clients. ROAL provides openness and a collaborative approach as well as information sharing as a prerequisite for profitable and effective solutions. Authorized clients can access the ROAL intranet and have real time information on permissible documents and activities.

Provided by Fabio Orlandini
North America Field Application Engineer
ROAL ELECTRONICS USA, Inc.

Editors Note: We would like to feature your company in a future issue of the Update. Please contact the Association Office for information about how to submit an article for consideration.

Aimtec Inc.
Louise Cote
3883 St. John’s Blvd., Suite 502
D.D.O. H9G 3B9
Canada
E-Mail: louise.cote@aimtec.com
Web Site: www.aimtec.com

What's important to you has become critical to Aimtec! As a surging Canadian based manufacturer of quality AC/DC and DC/DC power converters, Aimtec recognizes, and delivers on the fact that nothing is more important than their customers' needs.

Speaking about quality - quality that Aimtec backs through one of the industry's finest warranty programs. Speaking of price Aimtec provides excellent cost/value proposition for their customers. Aimtec is proud of their story of global, exceptional, and sustained growth; an ongoing and growing tale of success. They could boast about lead times that are the envy of the industry; having the right product available when it is needed is always a good option for a manufacturer. They stress their dedication to benchmark customer service; one of the reasons for their growing reputation in the trade. They are known for innovation: Aimtec launched over seven hundred products in 2005 alone, and they continue to grow.

All of these important things have resulted from customer demand; their customers have made Aimtec what it is today, and customers continue to direct Aimtec along a path of continual improvement.

Aimtec looks forward to a bright future. Aimtec will continue doing what they do well and looking for ways to improve. In early 2006 they will become ISO 9001:2000 certified. They will further grow and strengthen their representative and distributor network world-wide. Above all, they will remain conscientious about who and what has brought them to this point and will drive them into tomorrow: their customers.

Cree, Inc.
Brice Moore
4600 Silicon Drive
Durham, NC 27703
E-Mail: power_sales@cree.com
Web Site: www.cree.com

Cree is a market and technology leader in LED chips, power LEDs, LED backlighting solutions, power switching and wireless communications devices.

Key to Cree’s market advantage is unrivaled materials expertise in silicon carbide (SiC) with gallium nitride (GaN) to deliver chips and packaged devices that can handle more power in a smaller space while producing less heat than other available technologies, materials and products.

Cree drives increased Return on Energy™ (ROE™) solutions into multiple applications including exciting alternatives in brighter and more tunable LED light for general illumination, backlighting for more vivid displays, optimized power management for high-current switch-mode power supplies and variable speed motors, and more effective wireless infrastructure for data and voice communications. Cree customers range from innovative lighting fixtures makers to defense-related federal agencies.

Cree’s product families include blue and green LED chips, lighting LEDs, LED backlighting solutions, power switching devices and radio frequency devices. The company is also currently developing near-ultraviolet lasers.

JEC Korea
Hyodae Ahn
26-6 Wau – Ri, Bongdam-Eup
Hwaseong-Si, Kyonggi-Do
445-879 Korea
E-Mail: ahnhd@hanmail.net
Web Site: www.jeckr.com

JEC Korea Corporation founded in 1995 designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of power supply devices. JEC Korea strives to provide the best service and solutions for its customers power conversion needs.

As a world class leader in the power conversion solution market they guarantee to satisfy their customers with the best quality and service. JEC Korea Corporation looks forward to continued growth and customer satisfaction.

Sigma Electronics
Doug Sheen
10830 Kinghurst Drive
Houston, TX 77099
E-Mail: ahnhd@sigmaxfmr.com
Web Site: www.sigmaxfmr.com

Sigma Electronics is a custom design transformer company established to provide its customers with a product source for custom transformers, offering innovative solutions to challenging custom transformer problems. Sigma's primary purpose is to satisfy customer needs - promptly and efficiently - from design and prototype to the finished product.

Sigma excels in the design and manufacturing of custom transformers, inductors, chokes, and related magnetic devices. From one piece to thousands, Sigma can produce custom transformer, inductor, choke or other magnetic devices with the highest quality and standards. Using state-of-the-art equipment, manufacturing techniques and testing equipment assures that they will always be on the cutting edge of wound product technology.

Sigma Electronics has a long-standing reputation for quality and service to their customers throughout the aerospace, geophysical, biomedical, data processing, industrial process control, military and communications industries. Their engineering skill and craftsmanship in custom transformers is second to none. After more than 40 years in the custom transformer design and manufacturing, they pride ourselves on their commitment to excellence in this specialized field.

Suntan Technology Company
Cindy Tong
Unit I, 4/F, Dormind Industrial Building
13 Yip Fung Street
Fanling, New Territories
Hong Kong 518026
E-Mail: roling@capacitor.com.hk
Web Site: www.capacitor.com.hk

Since 1978 Suntan has specialized in marketing all types of capacitors from their headquarters in Hong Kong. They are now a leading firm in the electronic component industry with 1,500 workers in their 4 Mainland China factories making a full range of Plastic Film Capacitors, Polyester, Metallized, Polypropylene, Polystyrene, Aluminum Electrolytic, Ceramic Disc, Multilayer Ceramic Chip and Multilayer Ceramic (Mono) Capacitors.

To meet the world's growing demand for electronic components Suntan has set up their own production line and a joint-venture with experienced Korean factories in Jieyang, Xinhui and Dongguan in the Guangdong province, Yantai in the ShanDong province of the Peoples Republic of China.

Suntan also markets many other types of capacitors such as Mica, Gold, Spark, Starter and Tantalum with application for any type of electronic products. In addition, they support some OEM projects for the manufacture of capacitors and similar products.

Suntan is well established and specializes in service and quality with an extensive export and import network. They provide quick turn-around for their customers worldwide. Their 23 years experience with all types of capacitors using the best materials, state of the art equipment and technology and ongoing Quality Control coupled with extensive R & D assures their customers of the best in quality and on time delivery.

Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation
J.K. Shen
123, Park-Ave-3rd
Hsinchu Science Industrial Park
Hsinchu, Taiwan 30077 R.O.C.
E-Mail: jkshen@vis.com.tw
Web Site: www.vis.com.tw

Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation (VIS) is a leading specialty IC foundry service provider. Since its founding in 1994, VIS has been achieving continuous success in its technology development and production efficiency improvement. VIS has also been consistently offering its customers cost-effective solutions and high value-added services. VIS currently has one 8-inch fab which has a monthly output of approximately 55,000 wafers.

Headquartered in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, VIS is a spin-off of the Sub-Micron Project, sponsored by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). Original investors include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) and 13 other institutional investors. VIS was founded with the primary focuses on the production and development of DRAM and other memory IC. In March 1998, VIS became a listed company on the Taiwan Over-The-Counter Stock Exchange (OTC).

In 1999, VIS started to work as a subcontractor for TSMC for the manufacturing of logic and mixed signal products. In 2000, VIS officially announced its plan to transform from a DRAM manufacturer into a foundry service provider. In February 2004, VIS completely terminated its DRAM production and became a pure-play foundry company.

VIS offers a wide range of process technologies, including 0.18um Logic, Mixed-Signal, Analog, High Voltage, Low Power, CMOS RF, Flash, Embedded Memory, and Bipolar CMOS DMOS (BCD). VIS will continue its IP development by strengthening its strategic relationship with its IP provision partners, and provide customer specific design services as value-added support to its foundry service customers.

Looking forward, VIS is dedicated to becoming the world's leading customized specialty IC manufacturing services provider. VIS is also committed to always providing its foundry customers cost-effective and high value-added solutions for their IC foundry manufacturing needs.

s a current member of PSMA and the past recipient of the "2002 PSMA Educational Award" for our REEL Power (Renewable Energy Education Lab) program, I am honored to discuss with you how REEL Power is making a difference in educating our youth in the areas of renewable energy.

REEL Power is a K-12 educational program that uses small solar panels, 3-phase wind turbines and fuel cells to demonstrate how clean, no-polluting power can be generated and stored. These three devices are contained in our "ET – Energy Tripod" product that gives students and teachers the opportunity to directly experiment with these technologies in a hands-on manner, and not just read about them in textbooks.

Students in grade school are learning about these technologies while improving their math and science skills at the same time. The prospect of learning about renewable energy and what it can mean for the environment and economy once it is adopted on a large scale is both exciting and meaningful to our youth, especially those who live and work in congested cities and towns.

In 2004, LearnOnLine assisted in winning a $10,000 grant from BP (formally British Petroleum) for Palms Middle School in Los Angeles, CA. With money from this grant, science teachers from this school received six REEL Power ET’s to help educate their 6th to 8th grade students about solar, wind and fuel cell technologies. In the process, it is hoped that this early introduction to renewable energy technologies will spur future student interest in technical careers, especially in the power and energy field.

Many students in high school and college want to become computer programmers, either as a primary career choice or an avocation. However, beyond learning the basics of any particular computer language, most speculate on where to direct their creative energies. Computer gaming software is a hot topic, but how about renewable energy? For this, your author has authored a text entitled "Experiments with Renewable Energy" published by Parallax, Inc. the maker of the "Basic Stamp" microcontroller line of products. With this text and support materials, students discover the principles of energy storage by designing a programmable battery charger followed by building a solar cell array that tracks the sun with a closed-loop servo control system. A model 3-phase AC wind turbine is used as a power source to demonstrate single-phase half and full wave DC rectification as well as three-phase power production and rectification. Learning how to code experiments to do these things gives greater meaning to student’s programming efforts as well as introducing them to renewable energy and power conversion techniques.

Even more inspiring to those in the power source and conversion fields are students desire to learn about what to do with the clean power after it is produced; in other words, once you have the power, what can you do with it – and at what efficiencies. This is especially true for college students who are thinking beyond the dazzle of renewable energy in and of itself. For these students we have designed scientific instruments that are capable of measuring, characterizing, graphically plotting and logging data for solar panels, wind turbines and fuel cells – all of which can be interfaced to common PCs for graphic data display, data logging and later data analysis – and that cost less than $250.

Evaluations of our instruments are being conducted at Stark State College in Canton, OH, Southern Illinois University and at UC Irvine. Thus far, reports are that many more students and teachers will be able to afford to invest in our instruments, there by making the study of renewable energy much more pervasive on college campuses.

Renewable energy and power electronics are inexorably linked. While raw power may come from the sun, wind, geothermal, hydro or ocean waves and tides, the need to convert this energy and process it for distribution and consumption is an ongoing need. At this point in time it is difficult to predict, with any real certainty, the influence of renewable energy on power electronics. However, if history is any guide, it can be assumed that custom power electronics will be needed for these emerging energy technologies in order to help them become commercial successes. And while large solar panels, wind turbines, ocean wave energy converters and fuel cells (especially in laptop computers and eventually automobiles) will be the visible "tip of the iceberg" of this new energy paradigm, power electronics must be the other "nine-tenths" of the invisible support mechanism that will carry the promise of clean, non-polluting power to fruition. With the ever present need for more locally trained individuals in power technologies, embracing renewable energy from the perspective of power sourcing and conversion is appropriate and needed, and the time for doing so is at hand.

In conclusion, it is felt that interest on the part of PSMA members in renewable energy is timely as well as important to both students and manufacturers of these technologies. At the 2006 Annual Meeting, PSMA will officially introduce a new technical committee that will focus on Alternate Energy. This new committee, chaired by Alex Levran of Magnetek, Inc., will provide a forum for representatives from member companies and others interested or involved in the technology to interact and focus on the opportunities and challenges in the application of power electronic products to alternate energy systems. We welcome your participation in this work.

For more information on REEL Power and related renewable energy teaching aids, please visit www.learnonline.com.

Provided by John Gavlik, President, LearnOnLine, Inc

n January 31st, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hosted a conference on "Opportunities for Energy Savings in Enterprise Servers and Data Centers" at the Sun Microsystems’ facility in Santa Clara, California. The conference was co-sponsored by PSMA, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and a number of power supply companies.

In recent years, the EPA has taken an active role in promoting the importance of efficiency improvements in external power supplies and desktop computer power supplies (80 plus program). This conference was an effort to take the same concept to high-end servers and data centers, which, according to one study, each currently uses the equivalent of 80 barrels of oil a day.

The conference presented an entire spectrum of power/energy related issues applicable to Enterprise Servers and Data Centers. It was an exhaustive list that included power conversion (SMPS), power protection (UPSs), heat removal/cooling and waste due to bad physical structure. A wide range of participants including server manufacturers, power supply/UPSs manufacturers, data center users such as Target Corp., AT&T, Fannie Mae and Goldman Sachs and industry consultants provided insight into the various issues related to energy consumption. PG&E—Pacific Gas & Electric—a supplier of electricity, which would benefit from higher consumption of energy was touting the virtues and benefits of higher energy efficiency.

Some of the highlights of the conference were:

• Dr. Bob Sullivan from The Uptime Institute presentation of Coefficient of Efficiency (Total Power/Critical Power) gained considerable attention due to its quantification of inefficiency. We will hear a lot more about this coefficient in the future.
• Industry transformation will be required where hardware selection will be based not only on performance, but also on power consumption
• Industry transformation will happen when customers perform a cost/benefit analysis based on the total cost of ownership (TOC) which includes long term energy savings rather than focus on the first cost of equipment (COE) which provides short term benefit
• Power-One articulated its vision of true benefit of Digital Power Management, where their adaptive technology would optimize power delivery according to the dynamic and evolving load conditions of the system.

• EPA should take the lead to offer energy efficiency guidelines, because there are disagreements between various stakeholders. EPA should establish these guidelines after listening to various stakeholders and interested parties.
• PSMA should be able to act as a provider of technical information and industry comments because it represents many stakeholders.
• APEC—Applied Power Electronic Conference—should be able to act as an education provider on many issues as part of its seminar program because it can bring all parties together under one roof and has the infrastructure to deal with multiple issues.

Provided by Mohan Mankikar, President, Micro-Tech Consultants

he use of power factor correction (PFC) in power supplies got a boost in 2001, when the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard 61000-3-2 went into effect in Europe. This specification required new electronic equipment consuming more than 75W to meet certain standards for harmonic content, which basically required the use of PFC. Britain, Japan and China soon adopted similar standards, and any company selling equipment into these regions needed to meet these requirements.

Power factor correction can often add cost, and it often does not directly benefit the end user. However, it does provide benefits to the power/utility supplier. Whether this power savings benefit trickles down to consumers and other users is unknown, although such a benefit could be a second-order advantage to companies looking for value to incorporate PFC into their products. Otherwise, the current primary driver for PFC adoption is government regulations.

Such government regulations can lead to wider-spread adoption in the future, if similar technology models are any indication. Electronic ballasts were an expensive alternative to magnetic ballasts until various regulations essentially phased out the use of magnetic ballasts. At that point, volume production brought down the costs of electronic ballasts enough that they could compete with magnetic ballasts. A similar pattern could occur with PFC, particularly active PFC.

Another factor that could drive active PFC is the increasing use of smaller, lightweight devices in the consumer, computer and communications segments. Passive PFC uses heavier components, and even though it may be a less expensive PFC solution, it may not be appropriate for these future devices. Until recently, PFC has been most commonly used in motor drives and pumps over 75W. PFC could be making its way into lower-power devices in very different applications, including distributed power architectures.

Semiconductor manufacturers are introducing a variety of new PFC controllers, diodes and MOSFETs to address these various applications and to deal with the problems associated with both passive and active PFC. Along with new control methods and PFC techniques, companies are exploring the use of digital control in power factor correction. PFC can benefit from nonlinear programming, which could help drive customer demand.

The main questions that need to be answered about power factor correction include:

(1) How quickly will PFC get adopted?
(2) What applications are the most likely candidates for adoption?
(3) What will be the mix of passive versus active PFC?

Darnell Group projects that the "best" application opportunities for PFC include: notebook and desktop computers, servers, printers, gaming systems, LCD and Plasma TVs, DVD players/recorders, home audio, set-top boxes, white goods, air conditioners, rectifiers (off-line battery chargers), data communications, electronic lighting ballasts, some motor drives, and industrial embedded ac-dc power supplies. These applications represent a total available market of nearly 2.1 billion units in 2006, growing to over 3.4 billion units by 2011, and a compound annual growth rate of 10.4%.

Beyond this point, the actual rate of adoption depends on a number of factors, including power level, cost and performance, volume production, and device size. Regional differences are important, as well, since at the present time North America does not have the same regulatory requirements as Europe and Asia. In North America, energy efficiency could play a bigger role in the adoption of PFC.

Provided by Linnea Brush, Sr. Research Analyst, Darnell Group

e would like to welcome you to Providence, Rhode Island, a beautiful port city in the charming and history-rich New England area of northeast United States. Providence will host INTELEC ’06 from September 10 through September 14, 2006 at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

Because all telecommunications technologies are power-dependant, the conference theme "Telecom Power: New Developments to Support the Latest Technologies," will appropriately focus on the ever-changing power needs of developing systems. What hasn’t changed is the compelling need to respond swiftly and efficiently to disasters such as the devastation to New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast blown in with Hurricane Katrina.

Herculean efforts by telecommunications carriers and their supply and installation contractors make the crucial difference in restoring services needed so desperately by the affected communities. INTELEC ’06 will host a spirited workshop on disaster preparation and recovery. All who attend will take-away valuable contacts, insights and ideas with which to bolster their company’s disaster plans and training initiatives.

INTELEC®, the International Telecommunications Energy Conference, is an annual international forum for the exchange of ideas and information on communications energy systems and associated equipment. This conference provides a unique opportunity for network operators, engineers and designers to interact directly with the manufacturers, distributors and designers of power equipment. Be one of the more than 1,100 representatives from more than 45 countries who attend this conference every year.

INTELEC ’06 will provide solutions, generate ideas and be a forum for the exchange of information between colleagues among a multinational cadre of telecommunications professionals. In addition to the primary Technical Program of invited and submitted papers, INTELEC grows as venue for credible training with the expanded Tutorial program of essential career development in telecom power and grounding.

Providence Rhode Island is an exciting city steeped in its rich New England seaport history and yet a bustling, modern convention venue. World class restaurants and charming little bistros and shops all are within easy walking distance of the Convention Center and the conference hotels and we promise to keep spouses entertained with interesting and informative spousal tours.

The city of Providence and the INTELEC team are pulling together to fulfill our promise of an exciting and valuable INTELEC ‘06. Together, we look forward to welcoming you to Providence.

For more information visit www.intelec.org/2006/index.php

Provided by Dan McMenamin, General Chairman, INTELEC 2006

If you or anyone in your company is interested in getting on the distribution list for future issues of PSMA UPDATE, please send e-mail to: power@psma.com. Be sure to include your name and the name of your company.