1. The Stage Is Set For APEC 2013
   
2. You Are Invited To The 2012 Planning Meeting
   
3. About Our Members
   
4. Welcome To PSMA
   
5. APEC 2013 Announces Student $1,000 Attendance Awards
   
6. Net- Zero-Energy (NZE) Buildings
   
7. PSMA Co-sponsoring 3rd International Workshop On Power Supply On Chip
   
8. INTELEC® 2012 Is Just Around The Corner
   
9. EMS DealReader Q2 2012
   
10. EMS Stock Index Q2 2012
    
11. Solar Energy DealReader Q2 2012
    
12. Solar Energy Stock Index Q2 2012
    
13. Events Of Interest – Mark Your Calendar

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.

Previous issues of update: Q4_2011 | Q1_2012 | Q2_2012

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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.

 

The Applied Power Electronics Conference, which will convene March 17-21, 2013 at the Long Beach Convention Center, continues the longstanding tradition of addressing issues of immediate and long-term interest to the practicing power electronics engineer.  APEC 2013 will provide:

• The best power electronics exposition.
• Professional development courses taught by world-class experts.
• Presentations of peer-reviewed technical papers covering a wide range of topics.
• Time to network and enjoy the company of fellow power electronics professionals in a beautiful setting.

In addition to a world-class program offering attendees over 300 high-quality technical papers, APEC will again offer a slate of Professional Education Seminars on Sunday and Monday.

As in years past, there will also be a series of Industry Sessions.  These sessions provide the opportunity for important and timely industry developments to be introduced without the extensive peer-review process required of the technical regular session presentations. The target audience for the Industry Sessions differs from the engineers that typically attend the technical sessions. These sessions tend to attract system engineers, product planners and business-oriented people including purchasing agents, information technologists, regulatory agencies, and others who support the power electronics industry. There may still be time to submit an Industry Session proposal. Check the APEC website for details (www.apec-conf.org).

The ever-popular Micro-Mouse Contest will be held on Monday night after the opening evening exhibit. On Tuesday evening, after the exhibits close, everyone is invited to sit in on one of the engaging Rap Sessions that always generate a lot of dialog. You will also not want to miss the Wednesday evening Gala and Reception that will be held at the nearby Aquarium of the Pacific which is a world class aquarium.

See you in Long Beach!

Provided by Greg Evans, APEC 2013 Publicity Chair

he 2012 Planning Meeting will take place on Saturday September 29 in the Seaview A Room at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Long Beach, CA. The meeting will start at 12 Noon and all members are invited to attend and to offer their inputs and suggestions for the projects and activities the Association should focus on in the coming year.

The Board of Directors relies on the inputs generated at the annual planning meetings to identify, consider and select programs for the following year that will bring benefits to the PSMA membership. For example, initiatives generated at previous planning meetings have resulted in the Power Technology Roadmap Reports, the Power Supply in Package and Power Supply on Chip project, the Energy Efficiency Database project and supporting the Industry Initiatives at APEC.

This year’s meeting will begin with a brief review of the year to date accomplishments and summary of ongoing activities by Carl Blake, Chairman of the PSMA. This will be followed by an update of the six quarter financial forecast and brief status reports from the active PSMA committees.

Most of the meeting will feature an open forum to introduce and discuss possible special projects, initiatives and priorities for the coming months. All PSMA members are encouraged to provide inputs even if they cannot attend the meeting in person. Please email your suggestions to power@psma.com and they will be considered and included in the discussions.  After the meeting, the Marketing Committee will summarize the results and prepare a survey of the membership to solicit their priorities on which of the projects and initiatives should be the focus in the next year.

Attending members and guests are invited to remain after the Planning Meeting to participate in the September meeting of the Board of Directors, which will take place immediately following. After the board meeting, interested individuals are invited to tour the exhibit area space in the Long Beach Convention center and the meeting room facilities planned for APEC 2013

If you do plan to attend these meetings, please call or e-mail the Association Office at power@psma.com.  

The APEC 2013 Technical Program Committee will meet the following day, Sunday September 30, to select the technical papers and to organize the technical sessions, professional education seminars, rap sessions and special presentations for APEC 2013 in March. PSMA is a co-sponsor of APEC and all members are invited to participate in this important activity.

The call- in number to make hotel reservations for the planning meeting is 1-800-233-1234. Please reference the Applied Power Electronics Conference Planning Meeting to receive the group rate of $149 plus taxes.

We look forward to seeing many of you at these important meetings.

he APtronic AG, a recently added member to the Phoenix Contact-Group, has been a leading supplier of customized power supply for over 10 years. They are a company based in Germany, specializing in OEM products and services with focus on quality and customer satisfaction. APtronic is proud to provide German engineered products developed by dynamic teams with over 25 years of experience in the power supplies business. They specialize in the development, production and distribution of innovative customized power supplies for several application fields including industry and automation, telecommunication, medical engineering, banking and renewable energies.

APtronic provides engineering and project management throughout the developmental and logistical stages. The design and engineering of pioneering power electronics is carried out according to customer specification or on-site analysis to provide a tailored solution to each customer individually. The Quality Management System used by APtronic is certified to ISO9001 quality assurance standards. For competitive pricing, APtronic offers cost-effective manufacturing by their production partner in China under supervision of APtronic personnel on site with focus on quality and on-time delivery. For logistical services, APtronic supplies their products completely tested and certified, with labeling and packaging according to customer requirements.

APtronic works closely with their customers to create just the right power supply when a standard product is not a suitable solution. Regardless of order volume, APtronic creates design concepts for every power range from very low power products to kilowatt systems and turn them into finished deliverable products.

Provided by Martin Mühlenschulte,
Sales and Marketing Manager,
APtronic AG

A Leader in Powertrain Electrification

elphi is a leading global supplier of electronics and technologies for automotive, commercial vehicle and other market segments. Operating major technical centers, manufacturing sites and customer support facilities in 30 countries, Delphi delivers real-world innovations that make products smarter and safer as well as more powerful and efficient.

Delphi has a legacy of innovation in the automotive industry that spans more than 100 years.  As a pioneer in the development of electric and hybrid electric vehicles, we provide vehicle manufacturers with more than two decades of experience in architecting hybrid and electric vehicle propulsion systems.  We are aggressively lowering the cost of powertrain electrification through system design and architecture, component design and development, controls and algorithm development and manufacturability.  We offer a robust portfolio of green solutions including DC/AC Inverters, DC/DC Converters, On-board Battery Chargers, Battery Management Systems, Energy Storage Systems, Battery Controllers, Vehicle Supervisory Controllers, Power Distribution Centers, Thermal Cooling Systems, Wiring and Connection Systems and Evaporative Emissions Canister Modules.

Customers can leverage Delphi’s global strengths and in-market capabilities to speed the development and availability of state-of-the-art systems without comprising quality or system optimization.  Our dedicated, global engineering team is able to work side-by-side with customers to create high-value solutions.  We provide complete component modeling, analysis and test capability, and our teams are leading the industry in vehicle systems integration with computer-aided engineering, vehicle modeling, simulation and testing.  Our Velocity™ suite of design analysis and simulation tools can optimize an entire vehicle electrical/electronic architecture. 

We are also invested in technologically advanced development simulation and validation test capabilities for our hybrid and electric vehicle products.  To ensure that we deliver robust designs, we simulate real world conditions by duplicating extreme environmental conditions.  Our testing and validation capabilities include: high pressure spray, salt spray, temperature, humidity, mechanical shock, thermal age, thermal shock, salt fog, thermal cycling, vibration, acoustic and a full suite of electromagnetic testing capability.

Delphi’s team is dedicated to this goal:  “Be recognized by our customers as their best supplier.”  Not only do we design, simulate, test and validate components and systems with a proven process for manufacturability, our local expertise in high-volume manufacturing gives our customers the advantage of a high-quality, responsive supplier  that provides cost-effective solutions. With 114 manufacturing facilities worldwide, our experienced team will exceed customer expectations with on-time delivery and superior service.

Provided by Ralph S. Taylor,
Staff Development Engineer, Delphi

s a leading global supplier of electronic interconnects, Molex focuses on designing and developing solutions critical to products that touch virtually every walk of life. The Molex portfolio is among the world’s most extensive with over 100,000 products, including everything from electrical and fiber optic interconnect solutions to switches and solid-state lighting.
Molex serves customers in a variety of industries, including consumer electronics, data / telecom, industrial, transportation, medical, military and lighting.  And because we have the highest levels of R&D investment in our industry, Molex is known for providing a continuous flow of innovation in areas such as high-speed signal integrity, miniaturization, higher power delivery, optical signal transmission and sealed harsh-environment connectivity.

Molex is uniquely equipped to provide power delivery and power distribution in wire-to-wire, wire-to-board and board-to-board configurations.  The company’s wide selection of power connectors range from the versatile EXTreme Power™ connectors to the popular and proven Mini-Fit®, Micro Fit 3.0™ and KK connectors. These off-the-shelf connectors can be modified, customized or adapted to meet virtually any application requirement.

The Molex website is www.molex.com.  Follow us at www.twitter.com/molexconnectors, watch our videos at www.youtube.com/molexconnectors, connect with us at www.facebook.com/molexconnectors and read our blog at www.connector.com.

Provided by Rich Benson,
Global New Product Development
Manager - Power Products, Molex

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.

Microchip Technology
Stephen Stella
2355 W. Chandler Blvd.
Chandler, AZ 85224
E-mail: stephen.stella@microchip.com
 

Microchip Technology Inc. is a leading provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, providing low-risk product development, lower total system cost and faster time to market for thousands of diverse customer applications worldwide. Headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, Microchip offers outstanding technical support along with dependable delivery and quality.

Microchip Technology Incorporated is a leading supplier of field-programmable embedded control solutions by manufacturing the popular PIC® microcontrollers; a broad spectrum of innovative analog products; and related non-volatile memory products. In order to contribute to the ongoing success of customers, shareholders and employees, their mission is to focus resources on high value, high quality products and to continuously improve all aspects of their business, providing an industry leading return on investment.

 

he joint sponsors of APEC 2013 have announced the continuation of the popular $1,000 Student Attendance Awards to cover part of the travel and conference expenses for up to 30 students to attend APEC 2013 in Long Beach, California, March 17-21, 2013.

Now in its 8th year, the APEC Student Attendance Award program, initiated by the Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA), is now jointly underwritten by PSMA and the other co-sponsors of the APEC Conference – the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) and the IEEE Industry Applications society (IAS).

Recipients of the Student Awards will be chosen by the APEC 2013 Award and Grants Committee. Application forms are available at APEC Attendance Award Application. The criteria for the awards are:

• The applicant must be an undergraduate or graduate student enrolled in a power electronics program at an accredited institution.
• Applications must be made and received by the Committee by October 26, 2012.
• Up to two Student Awards will be made to students from a single institution. However, the award may be shared among students who applied for the Award.
• The recipients must attend APEC 2013 and submit expense receipts to the Committee.
• Preference will be given to students who have not received this Award in the past.

As part of the application process, students must provide information about their educational institution, degree program, the name of their faculty advisor and a brief description of their career interest and reasons for planning to attend APEC. If the student has submitted a paper for consideration to APEC, this information should also be provided along with the name(s) of co-author(s).

More information about the APEC Student Awards may be found at the Education Forum page. All recipients will be notified by November 16, 2012.

Note: Various agencies and reporting organizations have used Net-Zero-Energy (NZE) or Zero-Net-Energy (ZNE) interchangeably; but it is one and the same thing.

In the past, Net-Zero-Energy (NZE) buildings meant different things to different agencies. In its early definition, it required that no fossil fuel would be used in the building, but CEC later defined it as: what you derive from the grid, you put it back. The "net-zero" was important, not how or from where it was derived. The NZE performance in a building can be achieved by integrating various energy systems including generating on-site renewable energy, preferably by using solar technology, having energy-efficient appliances that use less energy and deploying software that tracks and controls energy use during low-demand and high-demand periods.

ZNE is an elegant proposition. Who does not want to live in a clean, beautiful, futuristic building where the air is clean, the environment is sustainable and technology is used for the human development?  There exist a few prototypes that are available for viewing on the Web. One prototype is in Borrego Springs, California and built by Clarum Homes which uses a 3.75-kilowatt photovoltaic system.  Borrego Springs is located about 90 miles north east of San Diego, California, a well known for its desert community. This house is not located in a major metropolitan area. Clarum Homes builds high-performance custom homes.  

With ZNE taking effect in 2020, the question for the power electronics industry is what this initiative means in terms of its requirements and business opportunities?

If Californians accept this proposition, it will spur demand for the renewable energy and the power management products and services used in the construction and appliance industries. There will result in an "increased opportunity" beyond normal forecast. It will provide a new paradigm in building construction and significant use of power electronics for this new market. CEC has rightfully not provided any specific guidance as how to achieve these results and thus provides the power electronics industry plenty of leeway to experiment with various systems and integrating them. The construction and power electronics Industries will have to be innovative and create their own pathway to achieve desired results.

However, one of the main issues in this building construction is the acceptance by the user. Invariably this initiative will add cost to the building construction, which some may rightfully argue, that in the long term will be recovered with lower energy bills. It is the short term pain for the long term gain argument. And then there is the global warming factor and its associated social responsibility. NZE buildings will use less fossil fuel, so they emit less CO2 in the atmosphere, hence aid in the effort of lessening global warming. The new NZE buildings may be more expensive, but will it provide benefits in the long term. Once again, will Californians accept this argument?

The goals of this initiative, or any initiative for that matter, can be achieved only if they are commercially feasible and accepted by a large population. One of the vivid examples of such a noble effort was when California's Air Resources Board (CARB) passed a mandate in 1990 that stated" ... by 1998, 2% of new car sales of the Big 7 largest car makers will be zero emission vehicles or ZEV and the volume to increase to 10% by 2003...". California did achieve this goal. And after recognizing that such a goal would be impossible to meet and pressure from the auto companies, CARB changed its ZEV mandate.

Will something similar happen to NZE initiative?

In the last four years, a year after the original initiative, California has gone through wrenching economic slowdown, especially in the housing industry.  Known as the sub-prime mortgage debacle, vast swathches of many California neighborhoods have become ghost towns with abandoned foreclosed homes. Major California cities notably Stockton and San Bernardino have filed for bankruptcy due to the recession and loss of revenues due to the massive foreclosures of homes in those cities. As a result, home prices have tumbled significantly due to oversupply. The housing industry in California has yet to recover.

Will recession-wary Californians buy expensive, technological and energy efficient modern homes? 2020 is still eight years away and much can change during that time. In 2009, California was ground zero of the housing crisis. That was almost three years ago and California has not yet recovered from that crisis. Will the memory of ground zero of the housing crisis scuttle the plan of the net-zero-energy buildings of the future?

Provided by Mohan Mankikar, President, Micro-Tech Consultants

The workshop will focus on the integration of electrical power converters for multiple applications, and address a broad range of technologies.  The complete integration on-die and integration within package are of prime interest.  System performance requirements demanded by present day and emerging applications require ever greater granularity in voltage and control, form factor reduction, efficiency, and cost reduction. A major challenge on the path to integration and form factor reduction of dc-dc converters is the difficulty of integrating the energy handling passive components utilizing conventional silicon processes.  The focal topics for this workshop are the strategies for addressing circuit and system approaches as well as advanced technologies for the design and manufacture of these passives. 

Dr.  Cian Ó Mathúna,of the Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, has been researching and promoting magnetics on silicon technology for more than a decade presented a perspective on the recent growth of interest in the PwrSoC space.  “Over the last two years, we are seeing a significant increase in state and commercial investment. A number of market studies have appeared and both the U.S. ARPA-E and the EU Framework 7 program have made significant investment in PwrSoC research partnerships between academia and industry”. The Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, Ireland has hosted two predecessor workshops in 2008 and 2010.

The General Chair for the workshop is UC Berkeley Prof. Seth Sanders,  one of the pioneers of Power Supply on Chip technology dating back to the mid-1990s. In welcoming the opportunity to host the workshop in San Franscisco, he stated that “this workshop will address the broader context of PwrSoC – as well as addressing the concept of board mounted dc-dc converters that replace linear regulators in terms of size and cost but with much higher efficiency.  The workshop will place particular emphasis on the concept of granular power delivery for large system on chip platforms, such as microprocessors, microcontrollers and DSP chips, where multiple independent power rails enhance system performance. PowerSoC ’12 is the only international technical workshop dedicated to advancing these important leading-edge power conversion technologies.”  

The Third International Workshop on Power Supply on Chip will follow the successful formula from the predecessor workshops with a single track of invited talks and posters. Because of the intense nature of this workshop, attendance will be limited to individuals actively involved with this emerging technology.  Please see http://powersoc2012.org/ for more information and registration.

INTELEC©, the International Telecommunications Energy Conference, is the annual world-class technical forum which presents the latest developments in communications energy systems and related power-processing devices and circuits.  This Conference, which serves the broad community of researchers, suppliers and operators, explores new technologies of power conversion, energy storage and systems for telecom applications and environment. For more information on INTELEC please see www.intelec.org

The INTELEC 2012 conference program will feature a key note speech by General Russel Honoré, leader of Task Force Katrina, about his experiences and the importance of communications infrastructure in a disaster recovery situation. There will also be invited plenary papers by the DOE on fuel cells, The Future of Energy Storage by Mark Mills and a paper on HVDC for data centers.  The technical program will also include many other papers, workshops and poster sessions. Manuscripts of presented papers will be included in the conference proceedings.

The technical exhibition will consist of displays of products and services in the areas of, advanced energy storage systems, DC systems for central office and outside plant, green power solutions, energy efficiency, powering through disasters and many others that are critical to operational success.

The tutorial program will include sessions on zone de-powering, distributed generation, batteries, failure analysis, renewable energy and communications power systems.

An extensive social program will include two exhibit receptions, afternoon tour, banquet, post conference tours to the Grand Canyon and a comprehensive partner program.

For information including conference venue, technical program, exhibition and social program please go to: http://www.intelec.org/intelec2012/

Provided by Donovan Davidson,
INTELEC 2012 Publicity Chair

• Q2 2012 deal volume comparison by total transactions, deal type, geography and size
• Recent EMS transaction announcements
• Margin Squeeze and Expansion: An exploration of Margin Performance in the EMS Industry

ems_dealreader_2q12.pdf (84k pdf)

This data is included with the permission of Lincoln International. For more information, you may contact John McManus (jmcman@optonline.net) or the Association Office.

• Quarterly performance of the EMS Stock Index versus the S&P Index
• Relative market valuations of each EMS Tier
• Current financial data for each company in the index

ems_stockindex_q2-2012.pdf (75k pdf)

This data is included with the permission of Lincoln International. For more information, you may contact John McManus (jmcman@optonline.net) or the Association Office.

• Solar Energy Industry Q2 2012 deal volume comparison by total transactions, deal type, geography, and sector of the target company
• Recent Solar Energy transaction announcements
• An Analysis of Growth Trends affecting the Solar Energy Industry

solar_energy_deal_reader_2q12.pdf (102k pdf)

This data is included with the permission of Lincoln International. For more information, you may contact John McManus (jmcman@optonline.net) or the Association Office.

• Quarterly performance of the Solar Energy Stock Index versus the S&P Index
• Relative market valuations of each Solar Energy Category
• Current financial data for each company in the index

solar_energy_stock_index_2q12.pdf (97k pdf)

This data is included with the permission of Lincoln International. For more information, you may contact John McManus (jmcman@optonline.net) or the Association Office.

• Q1 2012 deal volume comparison by total transactions, deal type, geography and size
• Recent EMS transaction announcements
• Terms &Turns: Revisiting the Cash Cycle

1q12_ems_deal_reader.pdf (77k pdf)

This data is included with the permission of Lincoln International. For more information, you may contact John McManus (jmcman@optonline.net) or the Association Office.

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.