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Make Your Plans Soon To |
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 he early reports are in and it looks like APEC2011, to be held at the Ft. Worth Convention Center March 6-10, is shaping up to sustain the remarkable growth of this premier industry event over its 26 year history .
It’s not too early for you to be making plans to attend. So mark your calendar and be sure to include APEC2011 in the new fiscal year budget! APEC2011will feature a solid technical program with over 300 peer-review papers, exceptional plenary sessions, professional education seminars, timely special presentation sessions plus the ever-popular “rap” sessions and micro-mouse competition. APEC 2011 will also feature a lively exhibit environment where companies will display the latest in power electronics hardware, software, services and publications. As always the conference will include a banquet, with country music and Texas entertainment, in addition to a well planned and interesting spouse and guest program. If you are involved in any aspect of the power electronics business, you should plan now to attend APEC 2011. This unique conference focuses on the practical and applied aspects of the power electronics business. This is not just a designer's conference; APEC has something of interest for anyone involved in power electronics including:
For complete information and to register to attend, please visit www.apec-conf.org.
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You Are Invited To The 2010 PSMA |
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he 2010 Planning Meeting will take place on Saturday September 19 in the Sundance 2 Room at the Omni Hotel in Fort Worth, TX. The meeting will start at 12 Noon. 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 and the Energy Efficiency Database project. The meeting will begin with a brief review of the year to date accomplishments and summary of ongoing activities by Dusty Becker, Chairman of the PSMA. He will also review the results of a SWOT analysis conducted by the Marketing Committee and the Executive Committee. The introductory review will be followed by an open forum and discussion of possible special projects, initiatives and priorities for the coming months. Any PSMA member is encouraged to provide inputs even if they cannot attend the meeting. Please email your suggestions to power@psma.com so that they can be considered and included in the discussions. In the coming months, the Marketing Committee will summarize the results of the meeting and prepare a survey of the membership to solicit their priorities on which 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 Fort Worth Convention center and the meeting room facilities planned for APEC 2011 If you do plan to attend these meetings, please call or e-mail the Association Office at power@psma.com. The APEC 2011 Technical Program Committee will meet the following day, Sunday September 20, to select the technical papers and to organize the technical sessions, professional education seminars, rap sessions and special presentations for APEC 2011 in March. PSMA is a co-sponsor of APEC and all members are invited to participate in this important activity. We look forward to seeing many of you at these important meetings.
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Meet Your Directors |
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 embers of the PSMA Board of Directors are elected at the Annual Meeting held every year during the APEC conference. Each Director serves a three year term and is eligible to be reelected for one additional term.
At the PSMA Annual Meeting in February 2010, Henry Lee, Jim Marinos, John McManus and Aung Tu were elected to three year terms on the Board of Directors. Treasurer Michel Grenon was appointed to fill an unexpired term. We introduced you Henry Lee, Jim Marinos and John McManus in previous issues of the Update. In this issue we would like you to meet Aung Thet Tu.  Aung Thet Tu is a Product Line Director at Fairchild Semiconductor and is responsible for high efficiency power conversion products. He is based in Bedford, New Hampshire. Prior to joining Fairchild in 2005, Aung spent 11 combined years with Unitrode and Texas Instruments. He started his semiconductor career as an IC designer for Sprague Electric Semiconductor division in 1987 and has a BSCE and a MSEE from Boston University.
Over the past several years, Aung has been involved in a number of PSMA activities. He is currently a lead co-chair for the PSMA Power Technology Roadmap and is also co-chair for the PSMA Semiconductor Committee. Aung has also contributed to the architecture of the Energy Efficiency Database that was implemented by the PSMA Energy Efficiency Committee. In the past, he has contributed to a lead-free database project as well as co-presenting in the 2002 PSMA Silicon Integration Project on the tradeoffs are in making custom power supply management ICs. Aung believes that it is time to give back to the power conversion community. He feels that his unique perspectives and skills can help promote and advance PSMA goals. Provided by Aung Tu , Product Line Director, Fairchild Semiconductor |
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 About Our Members |
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 How2Power.com Celebrates One-Year Anniversary Website designed to speed your search for power supply design information features expanded content and a free newsletter devoted to power conversion How2Power.com, a website that helps engineers address power supply design challenges, celebrated its one-year anniversary on July 1, 2010. Since the site went live last year, How2Power has expanded the content in its Design Guide article search tool and its Power Around the Web links section. In addition, How2Power has published nearly a dozen issues of the How2Power Today power design newsletter. “How2Power.com was developed from the ground up as a power electronics portal that gives engineers a more-organized way to search for design information related to power conversion,” said David Morrison, Editor of How2Power.com. “Whether you’re using the Design Guide to search for design articles, or reading about other resources on Power Around the Web, the site is helping you to discover and navigate through the many sources of power electronics information that are available for free online.” “Unlike many other websites, How2Power.com was not created to keep users captive on the site, but rather to find relevant information wherever it exists. How2Power provides summaries and links to the source materials, which may be posted on magazine websites or sites hosted by industry organizations, product vendors, design consultants, and other clearly identified sources,” said Morrison. The Design Guide search tool now provides access to hundreds of design-related articles, videos, and other materials on dozens of power conversion and power management topics. The Design Guide search results contain exclusive summaries and “what you’ll learn” analysis to help you locate materials that address your specific power design challenges. The Design Guide contents continue to grow as new article summaries are added on a regular basis. Meanwhile, Power Around The Web now presents descriptions of over a hundred websites that provide various types of free, power electronics-related information. On Power Around the Web you’ll read about power-supply related blogs, design notes and tools, charts and references, industry and academic organizations, bios of power electronics industry figures (including 40+ How2Power Today authors), and power-related publications, product guides, and job sites. In addition to in-depth design articles and power component news, How2Power Today features Morrison’s Power Supply Jobs & Technology column—the industry’s first regular feature discussing career opportunities for power electronics engineers in different industries. You can also read a similar column by Morrison on Career Development in Power Systems Design. How2Power.com is sponsored by Vicor, International Rectifier and Cirrus Logic with additional support from other power component and equipment vendors.
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. |
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Welcome to PSMA |
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NORWE Inc.
Osram Sylvania
Solara, Inc.
Storm Copper Components, Co.
Strategic Technology Group
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Power Supply Manufacturing In The |
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 ndrew (Andy) Grove, former CEO of Intel and an iconic figure not only in the Silicon Valley, but in the entire electronics industry created quite a stir when he proposed that a "surcharge to be levied on the electronic components made in China and shipped to the United States." Writing in Bloomberg Business Week's July 5th issue, Mr. Grove argues that unless such disincentive is enacted, manufacturing jobs will continue to be lost - and along with the manufacturing jobs, the United States will lose its technical edge as well.
It is an extensive article with substantive data, trends and arguments. The question is not its relevance, but achievability in the current climate of economic reality and trend to globalization. From the perspective of the US power supply industry this will not only be difficult, but may not be workable. The US power supply industry has "Crossed the Rubicon" a long time ago. Power supplies are probably one of the first products to migrate its manufacturing from the US to cheaper locations - first to Mexico and then to Asia. Initially this was mainly due to the high direct labor content in magnetics (transformer winding) and manual soldering of varied components. The non-standard nature of these products along with the relatively high labor content made the migration of power supply manufacturing from high cost countries to low cost countries not only attractive but inevitable. In 1984, the United States produced about 36% of the entire worldwide merchant power supplies in the world. By 2009, twenty five years later, production fell to less than 10% of the total worldwide merchant power supplies. Over the past 25 years, the US production of power supplies declined by 25% - an average of about one percentage point decline per year. This trend is more startling because many of the formerly captive power supply companies, which included large power supply manufacturing divisions of equipment companies such as IBM and AT&T, turned to the merchant market for their embedded power supplies during that period. Many of these companies no longer have the capacity to manufacture their own power supplies. Regardless of any incentives or disincentives, this trend is unlikely to change significantly for a number of reasons:
Does that mean that no power supplies are manufactured in the US? That is simply not the case and there are many companies that continue to manufacture power supplies in the US. The most prominent among them is Vicor, which has developed a highly automated state of the art manufacturing facility. Vicor started manufacturing its products in 1984 in Andover, MA and has continued to do so. Interestingly, they have a higher gross margin than most power supply companies that make products in low labor cost areas. This suggests that gross margin is based not only on the manufacturing location, but also on the company's business model. In addition to Vicor, SynQor also makes its power supplies, dc-dc converters and ac-dc switchers in Boxborough, MA. Many other power supply manufacturers serve the military power supply markets and, as a group, have not moved to off-shore locations. Interestingly Power-One recently announced that it was looking for a US site to manufacturer its renewable energy products, mainly PV inverters. This is quite extraordinary in the power supply industry, where most announcements are about closing the US facility and moving to an offshore location, mainly China. However, to date, Power-One is an exception for a US-based company. So despite Mr. Grove's economic, business, technical and social arguments, it does not appear that wide scale power supply manufacturing will be coming back to the United States. The industry has become Asia-centric. The views expressed in this article are solely of Mohan Mankikar's alone. They do not represent view of PSMA. Mohan Mankikar has been a part of the power supply industry for over twenty years, has been an active member of PSMA since its founding, and has been on the Board of PSMA and currently acts as an advisor.
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Infineon Technologies, Texas Instruments & Delta Electronics Top IMS Research’s Latest |
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 009 was a tumultuous year for almost every industry, not least for power components. Some suppliers however, weathered the storm better than others. Whether it was by targeting more diverse end-application sectors, winning more customer accounts, or tapping more successfully into resilient emerging markets, a number of large power suppliers managed to outperform the market and gain considerable market share last year.
According to the recently released reports from IMS Research on the markets for power discretes, power ICs and merchant power supplies, Infineon, Texas Instruments and Delta Electronics topped the rankings for each market respectively posting significant market share/ranking gains. Infineon gained three places in the power discrete rankings in 2009, to become the world’s largest supplier with a share of more than 8%. Despite its revenues declining by 15%, Infineon’s competitors fared somewhat worse and the overall power discrete market dropped by about 21%. Despite most power discrete suppliers taking a pummeling in 2009, IMS Research predicts the upside that 2010 presents will more than counteract the previous year’s fall. Total revenues are forecast to grow by just over 23% this year although it will not be until 2012 that the market recovers to its 2008 size of $11.7 billion. Highest revenue growth in 2010 is predicted for the computer & office, consumer and lighting market sectors and suppliers such as Fairchild, Toshiba, and International Rectifier that are heavily involved in these may see strongest recovery this year. Like power discretes, the power IC market also fell in 2009, but ‘only’ by 14% and was still worth more than $10 billion. Texas Instruments extended its lead in the market with a 10.5% share – nearly 3% more than second-placed Infineon, with almost all other suppliers recording double-digit revenue declines. One of the few suppliers to increase power IC revenues in 2009 was ac-dc regulator market leader, Power Integrations, whose revenues grew by around 7% - this was quite impressive given the extremely turbulent market conditions. With many suppliers reporting extremely high demand in their 2010 Q1 and Q2 results, it is perhaps not too much of surprise that IMS Research projects a very robust recovery for the power IC market in 2010, growing some 25% as end-application demand returns and the supply chain gets fully restocked. The merchant power supply market (including both ac-dc & dc-dc) was again dominated by Delta Electronics in 2009 for the seventh consecutive year, with an estimated share 16% (slightly down from the previous year). The merchant power supply market, which peaked at close to $20 billion in 2008, shrank by nearly a quarter in 2009. Like all other power component markets, a strong recovery is inevitable this year and double-digit growth can be expected. These findings, amongst many others including market sizings, trends, shares and forecasts can be found in three dedicated IMS Research reports. For more information please contact us.
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Microgrids Are Coming |
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 ne of the proposed solutions to our congested utility grid is the further development of microgrid technology, which is essentially a type of local energy network. In fact, they are actually modern, small-scale versions of the centralized electricity system. Microgrids are designed to produce energy and achieve specific local goals, including reliability, carbon emission reduction, diversification of energy sources, and cost reduction. Like the bulk power grid, smart microgrids generate, distribute, and regulate the flow of electricity to consumers, but do so locally. According to projection by the NanoMarkets Smart Grid Analysis (SGA), the microgrid market could reach $1.8 billion by 2015. Interestingly, over 40% of the market opportunity in the microgrid space will be represented by just one application: institutional/campus installations. According to SGA’s projections, this application alone will generate almost $775 million in revenue by 2015.
In addition, the SGA predicts that the cost per megawatt for campus/institutional networks will decline about 15% by 2015, making microgrids economically viable for smaller institutions including colleges, hospitals and military/police facilities. The SGA also expects that well over half of the microgrid market will come from North America over the next decade. One reason for this is that some large US universities have had primitive microgrids in place for some time now, so the concept is well-established. In fact, microgrid companies, still finding their footing, have already turned to campuses – where research and interested residents could help refine the concept. Existing microgrids are serving about 322 megawatts to institutional campuses, and this number is predicted to soar as high as 1.2 gigawatts by 2015 if the right policies are implemented. If the technology can be proven in these locales, it might have a better shot at residential deployment – with whole neighborhoods operating on the same microgrid. In addition, the growing demand for power quality in North America will be more economically provided by microgrids than by installing more generating capacity. In addition, the SGA believes that the US will experience robust military microgrid growth as part of the military’s Energy Surety and Net Zero Carbon Footprint program. Currently, the technological immaturity of the microgrid concept has resulted in a high value being placed on certain specialized microgrid-related products and services. Although microgrids are still considered novel concepts by some in the energy industry, they have several distinct advantages over traditional grid generated electricity. Microgrids are more suitable for the integration of renewable energy systems like rooftop solar panels, waste heat generators and fuel cells. Also, on a smaller scale, it is easier to track not only how much energy is actually being produced from these sources, but also how it is being used and distributed for more consistent service. Since microgrids operate on their own, without being connected into one of the larger national grids, there are less likely to be disruptions due to peak demand or excessive power loads. They are easier to repair and easier to automate with demand response or conservation programs. Perhaps the biggest advantage, however, is that microgrids can store enough energy to keep power flowing during blackouts or other disruptions. This makes them ideal for emergency services, hospitals, and the military — which has taken a deep interest in the microgrid concept of late. Microgrids could be an ideal solution for military bases. Right now, the majority of the approximately 455 megawatts being circulated in microgrids is still generated by traditional coal and natural gas operations – but this will probably change rapidly. The SGA has identified a number of specialist microgrid firms as successfully playing to this opportunity. These include: Balance Energy, BPL Global, Encorp, NSEE, Pareto Energy, Valence Energy and Viridity Energy. According to the SGA, specific offerings that the microgrid market is especially looking for from such firms are automation of power resources, energy management, modeling and energy simulations, demand/response management and energy trading platforms. In other words, the opportunities in the growing microgrid market are similar to those found in the smart grid as a whole, including smart meters with sophisticated communication capabilities to monitor energy usage and allow residential and business consumers to make informed choices about how much energy to use. Smart meters include a microcontroller with onboard Analog-to-Digital Conversion (ADC) and Digital-to-Analog Conversion (DAC), a sense component for both voltage and current, an ac-dc power converter, battery back-up, and wireless or wired communication capability.
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Power Electronics Stock Index: |
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 incoln International is pleased to present you with the Q2 2010 edition of the Power Electronics Stock Index from their global Electronics industry group.
The Power Electronics Stock Index provides you with information on the following:
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Solar Energy Stock Index: |
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incoln International’s™ Renewable Energy Group is pleased to present the latest 2010 Solar Energy Stock Index Report, which tracks relevant solar company metrics in this growing industry. Their Renewable Energy Group is at the forefront of the growth and development of the worldwide renewable energy industry. Whether through acquisition, divestiture, capital raising, or strategic investment, Lincoln’s industry expertise and global reach provide a valuable resource to companies seeking to implement their renewable energy initiatives. Areas of focus include biofuels, fuel cells / batteries, geothermal, hydroelectric, smart-grid technologies, solar and wind energies. The Solar Energy Stock Index Report, published by their Renewable Energy team each quarter, provides you with information on the following:
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Power Electronics DealReader: |
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incoln International is pleased to present you with the latest issue of the Power Electronics DealReader from their global Electronics industry group. This will provide you with:
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Lincoln International's Solar Energy DealReader: |
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incoln International is pleased to present you with the latest DealReader from their global Renewable Energy industry group. This will provide you with:
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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
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