In 2013 the committee opened up the webinars beyond PSMA membership to all interested parties. The result has been overwhelmingly positive. The number of attendees increased four-fold over webinars of previous years and with the increased participation, the level of discussion and interaction has also increased to the benefit of all involved. Sharing information and improving knowledge after all, is the goal of PSMA.

For the first time in the 2013 PSMA Power Technology Roadmap instead of providing an electronic version on CDs, the material was put on USB drives and included the recorded webinars. The webinars add much to the presentation materials because the listener can hear and understand the context and the subtext of the original presentation in the speaker’s voice.

In preparation of the 2015 PSMA Power Technology Roadmap the committee has organized a number of webinars covering the most recent trends and technologies that will be presented by recognized leaders in the power sources industry. These live webinars are scheduled for one hour total with 45 to 50 minutes of presentation followed by 10 to 15 minutes reserved for the audience to pose questions to be addressed by the speaker.

As of August 15, four technical webinars have been held:

• Technology Convergence as a Power Development Strategy presented by Alex Paultre of PSD
• High Voltage DC Distribution and Conversion presented by Stephen Oliver of Vicor
• GaN Transistors – Giving New Life to Moore’s Law presented by Alex Lidow and David Reusch of EPC
• Adjustable Speed Motor Drives presented by Babak Fahimi of UT Dallas
  

The following are some of the webinars scheduled for the coming weeks:

• Junction Transistors in SiC presented by Ranbir Singh of GeneSiC
• 400v DC Distribution, Deployment, Components, Best Practices presented by Brian Davies of Anderson Power Products, David E. Geary of StarLine DC Solutions, and BJ Sonnenberg of Emerson Network Power
• High-Voltage GaN Cascade Switches presented by Eric Persson of International Rectifier
• Mission Critical Power Systems presented by Dusty Becker of Emerson Network Power
• Power Converter Topology Trends presented by Steve Mappus of Fairchild Semiconductor
• Significant Developments and Trends in 3D Packaging of Power Products presented by Brian Narveson of Narveson Innovative Consulting, co-chair of the PSMA Packaging Committee

In addition, there will be a number of other webinars currently being scheduled. The latest topics, dates and times for the upcoming webinars can be found at http:/www.psma.com/technical-forums/roadmap/news-events.

The 2015 Power Technology Roadmap Report will be available by APEC 2015 in both print and electronic media and will be sent to all PSMA Regular and Associate member companies at no charge as one of the benefits of the company’s membership in PSMA. The report will also be available to Affiliate member companies at a reduced price. The report will also be available for purchase to non PSMA members.

If you are interested in receiving an invitation to attend one or more of the upcoming webinars please e-mail your contact information to power@psma.com

Provided by Eric Persson, co-chair of the PSMA Power Technology Roadmap Committee

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.