1. APEC Returns to Long Beach for 2024
   
2. You are Invited to Our 2023 Planning Meeting
   
3. Meet Your Directors
   
4. About Our Members
   
5. Welcome to PSMA
   
6. The Fifteenth PwrSoC Workshop
   
7. The Ninth PSMA/PELS High Frequency Magnetics Workshop
   
8. Celebrating 10 Years of Wide Bandgap Success
   
9. European Ecodesign - Energy Efficiency,What's Next
   
10. Make Vs. Buy: OEMs Now Have a Choice for Semiconductors
    
11. 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_2022 | Q1_2023 | Q2_2023

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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.

 

APEC 2024 in Long Beach - Back to Pre-COVID Energy and Attendance

PEC 2024, in Long Beach next February, is truly back to pre-COVID activity. Following the unfortunately-late cancellation of APEC 2020 in New Orleans and the need to accommodate the pandemic-mandated restrictions in the years following, our 2023 event in Orlando was the first to show a return to the conference's constant year-on-year growth. Never has power electronics been more in the forefront of electronics design and packaging and APEC 2024 is sizing up to be bigger than it's ever been. A full two months before registration opens in October, the booth space in the exhibit hall as already sold-out! The conference planners are working to see about adding more space to the exhibit hall to accommodate the growing waiting list of exhibitors.

The APEC 2024 Conference committee has been working diligently to prepare for the event that will be held a month earlier next year than has been the case for over a decade.  While it's just a bit too early to report on the specifics, I can report that Professional Education Session, Technical Session and Industry Session programs are coming together and will provide attendees with a full slate of career-enhancing information and insights. Registration will open in mid-September and the fee for full conference registration (still one of lowest of all IEEE conferences) includes free access to the Sunday and Monday Professional Education Seminars as well as a free ticket to the Wednesday evening Social Event.

Remember, you need to register to get access to the discounted hotel reservations. These special hotel blocks will sell out well before February.

As always, APEC includes a lively Exhibition that begins on Monday evening with a hosted reception on the trade show floor. The exhibits are also open on Tuesday and Wednesday and offer a hosted lunch service to attendees.

If you haven't already made plans to attend, don't wait any longer. Be sure you have it in your 2024 budget to attend this exceptional event – truly The Premier Event in Applied Power Electronics™

I hope to see you in Long Beach, February 25-29, 2024.

Provided by Greg Evans, APEC 2024 Publicity Co-Chair

ll members of PSMA companies are invited to attend the 2023 PSMA Planning Meeting and to offer their inputs and suggestions for the projects and activities the Association should focus on in the coming year. The meeting will take place on Saturday October 21, at the Hilton Hotel in Long Beach, CA.

The Board of Directors relies on the inputs generated at the Annual Planning Meetings to identify, consider, and select programs for the coming year that benefits to the PSMA membership. For example, initiatives generated at recent Planning Meetings have resulted in the 3D-PEIM workshops, the Energy Efficiency and Safety & Compliance Database projects and increased collaboration with industry organizations including CPSS, iNEMI, IPC and others.

This year's meeting will begin with a brief review of the year-to-date accomplishments and a summary of ongoing activities by Fred Weber, Chairman of the PSMA. This will be followed by an update of the six-quarter financial forecast from Treasurer Tim McDonald.

Most of the meeting will feature reports from the active PSMA committees and an open forum to introduce and discuss ideas for special projects, initiatives, and priorities for the coming months. All members of PSMA Companies are encouraged to provide input. If you cannot attend the meeting in person, email suggestions to power@psma.com and they will be considered and included in the discussions. In the coming months, the PSMA Executive Committee will summarize the results of the meeting and prioritize which projects and initiatives should be included in the focus for the next year.

The APEC 2024 Conference Committee will meet in the morning prior to the PSMA Planning Meeting, to discuss plans for APEC 2024 and the program including technical sessions, professional education seminars, rap sessions, and industry presentations for the conference in March 2023. Since PSMA is a co-sponsor of APEC all members are invited to participate and contribute in this important activity. There will also be a tour of the Convention Center prior to the PSMA Planning Meeting.

If you plan to attend the 2023 PSMA Planning Meeting, please email the Association Office at power@psma.com. We look forward to seeing many of you at these important meetings.

our members of the Board of Directors are elected at the PSMA 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.

In this issue we would like to introduce you to Deepak Veereddy.

 
Professional experience:
Deepak Veereddy is a Director of Technical Marketing at Infineon Technologies, where he is leading a global team of product definition & product application engineers with focus on Silicon and Silicon Carbide power MOSFETs. He had previously held multiple management and engineering positions in the areas of application engineering, device reliability, characterization, test, and design for Si, GaN and SiC power semiconductors.

Education:
Deepak received MS degree in Electrical Engineering from University of South Carolina in 2008 and BE degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Osmania University, India in 2006.

Volunteering experience:
Since the inception of JC-70 and until March 2022 (for > 4.5 years), Deepak served as a co-chair of the task group TG701_3, responsible for creating standards and guidelines of GaN Power Conversion Semiconductor Test & Characterization Methods. During his tenure as a co-chair of TG701_3, he led an international team to deliver the first ever Wide Band Gap guideline, JEP173 that focuses on GaN dynamic Rdson test method. He has been on the APEC planning committee since May 2022, helping with planning and organizing the Industry Sessions.

About us

lex Power Modules (formerly Ericsson Power Modules) is a Flex business unit that designs and manufactures board mounted DC/DC conversion products for the telecom, datacom, industrial and transportation markets.

Our main office is in Stockholm, Sweden, and we have design centers in Kalmar, Sweden, and Shanghai, China.

We manufacture our products in Shanghai, China and Penang, Malaysia, with emphasis on quality and highly automated production. We are one of the largest volume manufacturers in the power modules industry, having delivered more than 120 million modules globally.

Our products

With more than 45 years of experience and over 145 registered patents in power solutions, we have achieved many industry innovations in the areas of Distributed Power Architectures (DPA), Intermediate Bus Architectures (IBA), Direct Conversion products (Di-Con), Point of Load converters (PoL), Integrated Power Stages (IPS) and Vertical Power Delivery (VPD) solutions.

Power evolution

Since launching our first DC/DC converters in the late 70s with an output power of 25-40W, we now develop high density power modules with peak power capabilities up to 3000W and power densities of up to 15kW/in3.

Our product categories include:

• Isolated and non-isolated digital/analog DC/DC converters from 1W to 3000W (peak)
• Non-Isolated Point-of-Load converters from 2-120A (digital and analog)
• 48V to Load Direct conversion products
• Power Interface Modules (PIM), ATCA compliant
• Application Specific Products (Industrial, RFPA)
• Software: Flex Power Designer Software and SMBus Tool
• Evaluation boards and accessories

Each of our products is the result of extensive research and development in power technology with broad application and system knowledge. By also developing these products with manufacturability and sustainability in mind, our product designs have:

• High efficiency over a wide load range
• High power density
• Excellent thermal performance
• Low total cost of ownership over product lifetime
• Excellent dynamic load performance
• High MTBF and long lifetime

Product highlights

Intermediate Bus Converters

Non-Isolated / Non-Regulated
BMR313 / BMR314 – 4:1 input-output ratio, up to 1kW TDP, 3kW peak power
BMR320 – 8:1 input-output ratio, 400W TDP

Non-Isolated / Regulated
BMR350 – Quarter Brick with up to 1300W TDP, 1700W peak power
BMR351 – Quarter Brick with up to 1600W TDP, 2320W peak power

Isolated / Regulated
BMR491 – Quarter Brick with up to 1540W TDP, 2450W peak power, 1500V isolation
BMR492 – Eighth Brick with up to 800W TDP, 1100W peak power, up to 2250V isolation

Integrated Power Stages / Voltage Regulator Modules

BMR510 / BMR511 – 2-phase VRM solutions delivering up to 80A continuous, 140A peak

Point of Load converters

BMR473 – Digital POL delivering 40A in a SIP or Horizontal mount solution
BMR474 – Digital POL delivering 80A in a SIP module

DC/DC for powering Radio Frequency Power Amplifiers

BMR684 – Digital Quarter Brick delivering 700W at 50V out
BMR685 – Digital Half Brick delivering 1300W at 50V out

Contact us

Web: https://flexpowermodules.com/

Email: PM.Info@flex.com

Astronics - Advanced Electronic Systems (AES)

stronics AES serves global customers as the aircraft industry's electrical power experts, offering a breadth of power and motion solutions for commercial transport, business, VIP, rotorcraft, military aircraft, and other airborne platforms. Astronics Ballard Technology is now part of AES which provides reliable aircraft and avionics data interface solutions solving avionics processing and interfacing problems on aircraft, UAVs, and ground mobile platforms with our rugged avionics I/O computers and high-performance embedded interface cards.

Astronics Advanced Electronic Systems (AES) in Kirkland, Washington is an industry leading manufacturer of aircraft electrical power systems, including power generation and distribution. The company's markets include commercial transport aircraft such as Boeing and Airbus, business aircraft, rotorcraft, and military platforms.  Astronics AES is the world's leading manufacturer of in-seat power systems for laptops and other electronic devices with the EmPower® product line.  Astronics AES is also the world's leading innovator of electronic circuit breakers and power distribution systems for business aircraft with the CorePower® product line.

Aircraft Passenger and Crew Power

Power your passenger experience with our extensive line of EmPower® in-seat power systems. Built from the reliable technology of the industry's most proven power solutions, count on Astronics for:

• Decades of service on 1 million+ seats on 280+ airlines worldwide
• Commercial transport, business aviation, and rotorcraft systems
• Award-winning, patented, and certified designs
• Customizable solutions for your unique needs
• Future-proof technologies
• Linefit and retrofit options

Astronics invented in-seat power, and we've continued to innovate and expand our product line over the years. Today, major OEMS and airlines count on Astronics to provide the industry's most comprehensive, most certified, most widely deployed set of in-seat power solutions in the world.

The Intelligent Power Solution

The UltraLite G2 employs a high level of intelligent processing to enhance system capability and performance. Intelligence is built into every UltraLite G2 component, which continually communicate with one another to provide enhanced power management across the entire system. This advanced capability results in a system that is adaptable for virtually any installation requirement, any selected level of power management, and can be tailored to create a unique passenger experience. Outlet Units will be produced and available as anti-microbial products using the latest technology to create an Anti-Microbial formulation.

Wireless Charging Module

Future proof your cabin with next generation wireless charging for passenger and crew smartphones. The Wireless Charging Module (WCM) from Astronics provides airlines, OEMs, and seat manufacturers with a modern, Qi-certified, safe solution for delivering wireless charging capability for tomorrow's increasingly tech-savvy passengers and crew.
Now flying, the WCM is linefit certified by Airbus and Boeing.

Power Solutions for the More Electric Aircraft

Power Solutions for Diverse eVTOL Market Segments

Astronics power systems are highly adaptable and scalable to conform to a wide range of commercial and military eVTOL platforms. From smaller, unmanned vehicles to large multi-passenger aircraft, our modular component architecture is designed to provide high-efficiency, optimized solutions for vehicles with varying power needs: 28V DC, 115V AC, 270V DC, and even 800-1000V DC. For aerial platforms, Astronics is your seasoned power distribution and conversion system expert and will work closely with you to get your project off the ground quickly.

Ballard Avionics Data Connectivity

Astronics Ballard Technology is the industry-leader for reliable aircraft and avionics data interface solutions and world-class customer support.

Commercial Aircraft Interface Devices

Take control of your aircraft software and data with our cost-effective, open-architecture Smart AIDs that allow you to connect to your avionics data simply, safely, and securely.

Rugged Embedded COTS Devices

Solve avionics processing and interfacing problems on aircraft, UAVs, and ground mobile platforms with our rugged avionics I/O computers and high-performance interface cards.

Reliable Test & Simulation Devices

Test and validate avionics equipment and systems with our reliable test and simulation interfaces and software for all standard avionics protocols, including MIL-STD-1553 and ARINC 429/708/717.

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.

Akira Global Inc.
Dave Gusta
CEO
3001 Redhill Avenue 1-102
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
+1 949 229 2748
E-mail: daveg@akiragi.com
Web Site: www.akiragi.com

We are niche electronic component brokers. We locate and distribute hard-to-find, obsolete, and discontinued components to businesses to prevent disruptions in their production plans, ensuring predictability and prosperity.

Akira Global Inc. manages a global inventory and a network of distributors that span all over the world. We have the technical knowledge and the tools to perform real-time analyses to assess the impact of supply chain disruptions to protect our clients.

Akira Global Inc. was founded by industry experts who wanted to do something different for their clients. With its competitive pricing, honesty, and business transparency, the company soon found itself a key player in niche component sourcing and partnering with top electronic component manufacturers.

Akira Global Inc. was founded on the principles of trust, loyalty, and honesty. Our mission is to provide quality products and services to both national and international manufacturers and make the industry more reliable and transparent, one niche component at a time.

OpenMagnetics
Alfonoso Martinez
Founder
Int Lzq
Madrid 28003
Spain
Telephone: +003 467 480 0558
E-mail: Alfonso_VII@hotmail.com
Web Site: openmagnetics.com

Open Magnetics (OM) is a set of online tools for designing and simulating magnetics components, based on public scientific research and knowledge, stemming from the idea that all scientific knowledge is a fundamental right and should be accessible to the whole human race.

OpenMagnetics is fully Open Source, which means that any code used in the models or calculations is available to the community, all data about shapes, materials, wires, stocks or properties will be downloadable. Any information about models, electromagnetism theory or design procedure will be there. And most importantly, anybody can contribute.

OpenMagnetics is and will always be free, not even requiring user registration. Even so, users that register will gain the opportunity to store their libraries in the server, for their private use or for sharing with the community.

Enedo Inc.
Alberto de Leon
Manager
80 Orville Drive
Suite 100
Bohemia, NY 1115
Telephone: +1 631 542 2003
E-mail: alberto.deleon@enedopower.com
Web Site: www.enedopower.com

Enedo is an international company which designs and manufactures custom and standard DC power systems, AC/DC power supplies, and LED Drivers for a wide range of demanding industry applications including telecom, industrial, medical, lighting, utility, railway, and military.

Enedo's story began in March 1975 in Finland. Since then, Enedo has grown from a six person engineering office to a truly global organization, operating on four continents and serving customers worldwide. Tritium DCFC Pty Ltd

Tritium DCFC Pty Ltd
Jordan Pierce
Systems Design and Integration Lead
48 Miller Street
Murarrie, Queensland 4170
Australia
+61 731-478-500
E-mail: jpierce@tritium.com.au
Web Site: https:tritiumcharging.com

Founded in 2001 by e-mobility pioneers, at Tritium we design and manufacture proprietary technology to create the world's most advanced and reliable DC fast chargers for electric vehicles.

Tritium's compact and robust chargers are designed to look great on Main Street and thrive in harsh conditions, through technology engineered to be easy to install, own, and use. Tritium is focused on continuous innovation in support of our customers around the world.

The eighth International Workshop on
Power Supply on Chip (PwrSoC)

September 27-29, 2023
Leibniz University Hannover,
Hannover, Germany

Photos: ©2022 Daniel Vogl LUH (center), Bernhard Wicht

he eighth edition of the biennial International Workshop on Power Supply on Chip (PwrSoC) will take place September 27 thru 29, 2023, at Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany. Professor Bernhard Wicht (Leibniz University Hannover) is the General Chair and local host. Participants can take advantage of the Early-Bird rate by registering before August 28th, 2023: Registration (pwrsocevents.com)

About the Workshop

The Workshop is the leading international forum for discussing the challenges and opportunities on advancing the miniaturization and integration of power conversion and power management solutions. It will include technology, business, and supply chain topics.  The Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA) and IEEE Power Electronics Society (IEEE PELS) are joint sponsors for the Workshop.

About the Venue

Founded in 1831, Leibniz University is one of Germany's nine leading Institutes of Technology, with about 30.000 students. Named after the polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the university lives the spirit of Leibniz, combining global thinking and interdisciplinary research. The PwrSoC Workshop will take place in the historic main building of the university close to Hannover city center.

Highlights of PwrSoC 2023

The Workshop features presentation and poster sessions on advanced technologies with global academic and industry experts aimed at miniaturizing power management solutions through system architecture, circuits and topology, packaging, and passive components. Dr. Soh Yun Siah, Vice President Technology Development of GlobalFoundries, will open the event with a plenary talk. She oversees the technology roadmap execution for various applications, including high-voltage and power-analog products. The technical program includes talks by industry experts from Intel, Texas Instruments, TDK, Murata, ST, and researchers from Tyndall and Fraunhofer, as well as from academia. A Women-in-Engineering (WIE) Tea Break will be organized by female leaders in the field covered by PwrSoC. This WIE event is intended as a forum to discuss topics related to the professional development of women in engineering. A technical tour will take place in the afternoon of the final day at Baker Hughes in Celle near Hannover. Baker Hughes develops and deploys the most advanced technologies to serve energy and industrial companies looking for more efficient, reliable, and cleaner solutions. The Celle facility is the Center of Excellence for High-Temperature Electronics, including R&D and manufacturing.

Technical Sessions and Members of the Technical Program Committee

PwrSoC is organized as a single-track workshop. Each session typically has four presentations by experts from industry and academia. The Technical Program Committee of PwrSoC 2023 consists of the Technical Program Chair, Professor Bruno Allard (Université de Lyon, INSA Lyon, France), and 16 international experts. The below list gives an overview of the sessions planned over the three days of the Workshop.  The most up-to-date program can be found at Detailed Technical Program Schedule -  (pwrsocevents.com)

Poster Session

The poster session will be held in the gallery above the atrium of the University. A Best-Poster Award for the three top-rated posters will be sponsored by IEEE PELS (TCII).

Partnership Options

Platinum and gold sponsorship/partnership options can be selected directly when registering for PwrSoC. There are various other partnership options. All details are available on the workshop's website.  Partnership Information (pwrsocevents.com)

More Information and Registration

Please visit the workshop webpage http://pwrsocevents.com/

PSMA Magnetics Committee and PELS TC2 High Frequency Magnetics Workshop

Power Magnetics @ High Frequency
Saturday February 24 2024
Prior to APEC 2024
Long Beach Convention Center
Long Beach, CA 90802

he PSMA Magnetics Committee and IEEE PELS are currently planning to conduct the ninth "Power Magnetics @ High Frequency" Workshop on Saturday, February 24, 2024, which is the day before and at the same venue as APEC 2024 in Long Beach, CA. The 2024 workshop returns to the site of the inaugural workshop held in 2016 in Long Beach California. and plans to build on the success of the 2023 workshop held before APEC 2023 in Orlando Florida earlier this year.

The purpose and focus of this workshop are to identify the latest improvements in magnetic materials, coil (winding) design, construction and fabrication, evaluation and characterization techniques and modelling and simulation tools. This is to target the advancements that are deemed necessary by the participants for power magnetics to meet the technical expectations and requirements of new market applications for higher operating frequencies and emerging topologies that are being driven by continuous advances in circuits topologies and semi-conductor devices.

The target audiences for the 2024 Power Magnetics @ High Frequency workshop include the designers of power magnetic components for use in electronic power converters responsible to implement the most technologically advanced power magnetic components that are necessary to achieve higher power densities, specific physical aspect ratios such as low profile, higher power efficiencies and improved thermal performance. The target audiences also include people involved in the supply chain for the power magnetics industry ranging from manufacturers of magnetic materials and magnetic structures, fabricators of magnetic components, providers of modelling and simulation software as well as manufacturers of test and characterization equipment.

The theme of the 2024 Power Magnetics @ High Frequency will be the design of optimal magnetics across applications and environments.  A number of recognized experts have already confirmed their presentations for the workshop.

The workshop will open with a keynote presentation by Johan Kolar and Jannik Schafer of ETH Zentrum covering the opportunities for new magnetics designs to address a broad range of market driven technology trends across automotive and data center applications. The morning session will consist of lecture presentations by Jonas Muehlethaler of Frenetic addressing design and optimization of magnetics for different applications, Qiang Li of CPES addressing magnetics for VRM applications and Lukas Mueller of Mircometals addressing optimizing inductors based on choice of magnetic materials.

During lunch, breakfast, and the networking hour at the end of the workshop there will be an interactive session of tabletop technology demonstrations, each addressing specific technical disciplines and capabilities consistent with the workshop agenda. Workshop attendees typically spend ten to fifteen minutes at each technology demonstration station viewing informal interactive presentations. Interaction between the attendees and the presenters is highly encouraged during this portion of agenda as a segue from the morning technical presentation sessions to the afternoon lecture presentation session. Technology demonstrations are confirmed by JC Sun of Bs&T, Mike Arasim of Fair Rite, Arturo Mediano of HF Magic Labs, Lukas Mueller of Micrometals, Juris Vencels of Trafolo and Tom Wilson of Simplis Additional technology demonstrations are pending. If anyone is interested in presenting a technology demonstration, they are encouraged to contact the workshop organizing committee via e-mail to power@psma.com .

The afternoon session will begin with a keynote presentation by Charles Sullivan of Dartmouth addressing special design issues ranging from thermal design, dielectric design, and insulation design. The keynote presentation will be followed by lecture presentations by Roman Jamy of Yageo addressing multi-dimensional optimization relative to electrical, thermal, and commercial objectives, Zhicheng Guo of Arizona State University addressing partial discharge characterization for high frequency transformers and Subhashish Bhattacharya of North Carolina University addressing thermal design issues for solid state transformers.

If your company is interested in financially supporting the workshop as a partner, please contact the organizing committee through PSMA via e-mail to power@psma.com . Visit the following URL https://www.psma.com/2024_workshop_partnership to learn more about the benefits of being a workshop partner.

Registration for the workshop is limited and will open soon. Please visit the workshop's page ( https://www.psma.com/technical-forums/magnetics/workshop ) for updates on registration.

More information including the agenda for the 2024 Power Magnetics @ High Frequency Workshop as well as registration for the workshop will become available on the PSMA website ( www.psma.com/technical-forums/magnetics/workshop ) over the coming months.

Organizing Committee
Ed Herbert, PSMA
Rodney Rogers, Allstar Magnetics
George Slama, Wurth Elektronik
Matt Wilkowski, EnaChip

The 10th IEEE Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices & Applications
December 4 – 6, 2023

Celebrating 10 years of Wide Bandgap Success

he 10th IEEE / PSMA Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications (WiPDA) [www.wipda.org] provide a forum for device scientists, circuit designers, and application engineers to share technology updates, research findings, experience, and potential applications. WiPDA helps to bridge the gap between academia and industry, fostering collaboration, innovation, and advancements in the field of power electronics.

The workshop will take place from December 4th to 6th, 2023 at the UNC Charlotte Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Charlotte, NC. With its convenient location and state-of-the-art facilities, the UNC Charlotte Marriott provides the perfect setting for participants to exchange ideas and collaborate on the latest trends in wide bandgap power devices.

The keynote speeches will be delivered by leading experts in the field of wide bandgap power devices, providing valuable insights into the latest advancements and future trends. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in lively discussions with the speakers and other attendees, exchanging ideas and gaining new perspectives on the latest research and developments.

Join us as we reflect on the achievements of the past decade, explore our current standing, and look ahead to the future of wide bandgap power devices and applications with Keynote Speakers:

• Florin Udrea, CTO and co-founder of Cambridge GaN Devices Ltd; Professor at University of Cambridge
• Marco Zuniga, Chief of Technology, GaN Systems
• Elison Matioli, Professor,Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
• Dr. Kevin Speer, technology director, silicon carbide (SiC) business unit, Microchip Technology
• Subhashish Bhattacharya, Duke Energy Distinguished Professor, ECE, North Carolina State University
• Elif Balkas, CTO, Wolfspeed
• Anup Bhala, Chief Engineer, Power Devices, Qorvo (UnitedSiC)
• Jin Wang, Professor (ECE), Director, High Voltage and Power Electronics Laboratory, Ohio State University

WiPDA is brought to you by the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS), the Power Supply Manufacturer's Association (PSMA), and the IEEE Electron Devices Society (EDS) and will feature a wide range of technical sessions, keynote speeches, tutorials, and poster presentations. The technical sessions will cover various topics, including the latest developments in wide bandgap materials, device structures, packaging, and thermal management. There will also be sessions focusing on power electronics applications, such as electric vehicles, renewable energy, and data centers.

This year there are two special tracks added to the agenda. The Application (Switching) Reliability track is the first focused track on application reliability. This track explores the latest advancements in determination of component lifetime, product DHTOL, methods and circuits to apply application-relevant stress, failure modes and mechanisms, monitoring and prognostics, meeting JEDEC JEP180; to the types of stresses seen in circuits with hard-switching, soft-switching, flyback, and other types of operation with power GaN, SiC and Si.

The ITRW special track is a comprehensive research agenda focused on materials, devices, packaging, and applications of Wide Bandgap (WBG) power devices. This track explores the latest advancements in WBG technology and provides valuable insights into the current state-of-the-art and future directions of this rapidly evolving field. Submit your digests and engage with leading experts in the field to learn about the latest research findings and gain valuable insights into the future of WBG technology.

WiPDA also features an exposition representing companies serving the WBG power electronics industry in a variety of capacities. Top manufacturers and service providers are on hand to help you explore the latest in technology and solutions. For information on exhibit/sponsorship opportunities, contact Renee Yawger (renee.yawger@epc-co.com)

The organizing committee is excited to provide our sponsors and valued audience members with an opportunity to learn from leading experts, network with peers, and stay up to date with the latest developments in wide bandgap power devices and their applications.

We look forward to seeing everyone in Charlotte!

Provided by Renee Yawger WiPDA 2021 Publicity Chair

s power electronics engineers we have always sought for the highest efficiency power conversion methods, thus minimizing power dissipation and energy consumption. Well before any governmental regulations, the power electronics community has innovated to develop components and topologies that have contributed to saving energy. As energy efficiency regulations have empowered all around the world, further still we have researched into new ways of managing and storing energy but at the same time other environmental parameters have required power electronics manufacturers to integrate Ecological Design (Ecodesign) principles in everything that they do. What will that mean for the power electronics community?

From a Vision to the Ecodesign regulation
From 1866 when Ernst Haeckel established links between living organisms and their surroundings the ecology has been through a number of steps and cycles. Sim van der Ryn and Stewart Cowan's research in their book 'Ecological Design' developed the concept of integrating human activities with natural processes and was aimed at minimizing the destructive environmental impact. This was followed in 2002 by the publication of William McDonough and Michael Braungart's manifesto book 'From Cradle to Cradle', and so a lot of initiatives and projects have taken place to develop a circular economy and to preserve natural resources. One practical example is the 'Ecodesign' framework directive proposed on August 1, 2003 by the EU Commission for energy-consuming equipment [COM(2003)0453].

At a time when many power supply efficiency levels were peaking at 82%, standby power consumption was not considered an issue, and energy management within final equipment not even a concept, the EU proposed to improve the overall environmental performance for energy-using products (EuP), with a focus on energy efficiency but also the environmental impact during the overall product lifecycle.

April 20, 2004: The EU Parliament adopted a resolution on the proposal of an EU Ecodesign framework directive for energy efficiency and other environmental characteristics of products. On July 6, 2005 the proposal became the directive [2005/32/EC], giving two years to applicable countries to implement.

Among a number of products, the directive included external power supplies with a maximum output power of 250W that are intended to work with electrical and electronic household and office equipments [Regulation (EC) No 278/2009]. This directive was updated in October 2019 [Regulation (EU) 2019/1782] and as new technologies are contributing to improved levels of efficiency, it will be revised within a year to add product categories and to adjust threshold values.

Because the EU Ecodesign is very much consumer oriented, a number of activities are supporting them in the choice of buying and using products. For example, an important decision was to make it mandatory for listed products to bear a label indicating the energy efficiency with a comparative scale from the most efficient to least efficient (A to G). Originally created in 1992, and considering technological advances and improved energy efficiency levels, in 2010 the labelling Ecodesign scaling was redefined as A+++ to D and additional information for consumers e.g., noise levels added. The 2010 scaling was confusing and in 2019 the updated labelling regulation reintroduced the original A-G scale, a new calculation method taking real usage in consideration implemented, a QR-Code added [figure 01]. As well, to support consumers, manufactures and retailers, and to ensure a smooth transition from the old labels to the new ones, the European Commission has developed an online database, the European Product Registry for Energy Labelling (EPREL) publicly accessible.

Figure 01: Ecodesign labels evolution from 1994 to 2019 (PRBX/Sashkin/Shutterstock)

EU Green Deal and Ecodesign
From its origin the EU Ecodesign was meant to cover more than energy efficiency, but the complexity was such that the commission took a wise approach to make implementation smooth and acceptable by the industry and consumers.

In March 2020 the European Commission adopted the new circular economy action plan (CEAP) [COM(2020) 98], which is one of the main building blocks of the European Green Deal [COM(2019) 640]. The goal of the EU transition to a circular economy is to reduce pressure on natural resources and to create sustainable growth and jobs within the European community. It is also a prerequisite to achieve the EU's 2050 climate neutrality target and to halt biodiversity loss.

As William McDonough and Michael Braungart wrote 20 years ago, the circular economy is a model of production and consumption that involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. In this way, the life cycle of products is extended. In practice, it implies reducing waste to a minimum. When a product reaches the end of its life, its materials are kept within the economy wherever possible thanks to recycling. These can be productively used again and again, thereby creating further value.

This is a distinct departure from the traditional, linear economic model that is based on a take-make-consume-throw away pattern. This model relies on large quantities of cheap, easily accessible materials and energy. Also part of this model is planned obsolescence, when a product has been designed to have a limited lifespan to encourage consumers to buy it again.

The current Ecodesign Directive 2009/125/EC has a long track record of delivering benefits to businesses, consumers and the environment. In 2021 alone, the impact of the current Ecodesign measures, embracing 31 product groups, saved EUR 120 billion in energy expenditure for EU consumers and led to a 10% lower annual energy consumption by the products in its scope, and it was time to expand the directive to include circular economy.

In March 2022 the Commission published a proposal for a new Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). The proposal establishes a framework to set ecodesign requirements for specific product groups to significantly improve their circularity, energy performance and other environmental sustainability aspects. Among the additional requirement we could highlight product durability, reusability, upgradability and reparability, which have been under discussion for more than five years. Open Public consultation took place from January to May 2023 and is now under discussion for an expected adoption during the first quarter 2024.

Ahead of future regulations
Among the additional products to be covered by the EU Ecodesign regulation was a requirements for servers and data storage products [EU Regulation 2019/424]. The objective of the regulation was to limit the environmental impact of these products with a set of rules on energy efficiency, such as the minimum efficiency of power supply units, the minimum server efficiency in the active state, the maximum consumption in the idle state, and information on the product operating temperature. The regulation also takes into account circular economy aspects such as extraction of key-components and of critical raw materials, the availability of functionality for secure data deletion, and provision of the latest available versions of firmware.

Although originally expected to be enforced in January 2023, but due to the ongoing global supply crisis for semiconductor chips brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in power supplies manufacturers facing longer lead times than initially expected for the delivery of critical components, in December 2022 the Commission issued a notice [2022/C 469/03] postponing the date of implementation to January 2024.

The EU Ecodesign directive for energy efficiency in datacenters is similar to the 80 PLUS, and the level similar to Titanium for single outputs, and Platinum for multiple outputs, whilst noticing that the Power Factor Corrector figure of 0.95 is not defined under the same load conditions [Figure 02].

Figure 02: Ecodesign servers and data storage power supply energy efficiency regulation (PRBX/Iftikhar-Alam/Vecteezy)

Considering the increased demand on datacenters relating to the development of Artificial Intelligence, the regulatory commission may consider to strengthen the level of requirements, which power supply manufacturers are taking into consideration by adopting Wide Band Gap semiconductors and new adaptive control methods. Ahead of future regulations, WBG semiconductors manufacturers are already offering reference kits and application support to exceed the 80 PLUS Titanium and EU Ecodesign 2019/424 requirements, e.g., the Navitas Semiconductors CRPS185 [Figure 03].

Figure 03: Navitas Semiconductors CRPS185 3,200 W "Titanium Plus" server reference design (With courtesy of Navitas Semiconductor)

What will be the next step?
Energy efficiency has been the priority, but as we have said, EU Ecodesign is about developing a circular economy and prioritizing extending product life, making products repairable, reusing as much as possible and changing the way we work from 'cradle to grave' to 'cradle to cradle'. As we presented in 2017 and shared in our white paper 'Will the power supply industry adopt the cradle-to-cradle business model?', we are making good progress and the European Green Deal/Ecodesign will help make things happen.

References:
Powerbox (PRBX)
https://www.prbx.com/

EU Ecodesign
https://commission.europa.eu/energy-climate-change-environment/standards-tools-and-labels/products-labelling-rules-and-requirements/sustainable-products/ecodesign-sustainable-products-regulation_en

European Green Deal
https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en

European Product Registry for Energy Labelling
https://eprel.ec.europa.eu/screen/home

Will the power supply industry adopt the cradle-to-cradle business model?
https://www.prbx.com/literature/white-papers/#WP012

Navitas Semiconductor
https://navitassemi.com/

About The Author

Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for Powerbox, Patrick Le Fèvre is an experienced, senior marketer and degree-qualified engineer with a 40-year track record of success in power electronics. He has pioneered the marketing of new technologies such as digital power and technical initiatives to reduce energy consumption. Le Fèvre has written and presented numerous white papers and articles at the world's leading international power electronics conferences. These have been published over 450 times in media throughout the world. He is also involved in several environmental forums, sharing his expertise and knowledge of clean energy.

  number of years ago I authored an article about the make-vs-buy decision design engineers face in obtaining power supplies for their projects. Due to the ongoing interest in the topic, I recently wrote an update. This article has remained popular because the topic is forever relevant in electronics engineering. System designers are continually faced with the question of whether to make or buy the power supply circuitry they need, while at the same time there are always new options for designing and purchasing power supplies.

Today, some engineers and their companies face a similar question about semiconductors—should we buy them or make them? Here, I have reversed the order of the question because while the default with power supplies was originally for system designers to design and build them, the default with semiconductors has long been to buy them from dedicated semiconductor companies.

However, with large OEMs now having the engineering talent and design tools to create their own ICs, and have them fabricated by foundry companies, make or buy is now a relevant question for semiconductors. The recent unprecedented component famine of 2019 to 2023, which greatly affected the supply of semiconductors, has disrupted supply chains dramatically and cost OEMs millions in lost opportunity. This has driven major companies to take matters into their own hands.

This article looks not so much at the issue of how companies determine whether to make or buy their semiconductors, but rather how trends in the industry are pushing them toward the "make" decision. To understand how the industry got to this point, we need to look back at where the semiconductor business was in decades past and how it has evolved.

The Business Cycles

The semiconductor industry has always been highly cyclical. The first semiconductor cycle I experienced was in 1984 while working as an FAE at Analog Devices. That year, the industry went from normal lead times to 45 weeks to "who knows when?" Subsequent cycles from feast to famine have been the hallmark of the semiconductor industry.

Despite the obsession every semiconductor company has with forecasting, these cycles have continued. Apparently, forecasting doesn't work very well, or we would not have this problem. Or if the forecasts are accurate then semiconductor companies aren't acting on them. Either way, large semiconductor companies, (and I have worked for several) are the most internally focused organizations I have ever seen. Their needs come first, then investors, management and somewhere down the list might be the customers.

In the early days of the semiconductor industry the processes and technologies were internal and as one semiconductor executive once said, "real men have fabs." This was the attitude even as the cost of building and equipping fabs went from multimillions of dollars to multi-billions. Additionally, the top semiconductor companies owned the architectures and processes. So, their value propositions were that they had the fabs and the cores and topologies such as X86, 68000, PA-RISC, and Power-PC. In other words, semiconductor companies owned both the manufacturing and the device IP. 

But then many vertical integrated companies got out of the semiconductor business, as mergers and acquisitions occurred. Moreover, the era of licensed architectures arrived with ARM, RISC-V and others becoming easily obtainable. The barriers to entry in making chips were slowly coming down. Today nobody cares about architecture—just use one of the defacto standards off-the-shelf.

I was present at a famous meeting at Motorola when a major customer arrived for a technology review. They mentioned that they had bought companies who were ARM licensees and wanted to collaborate on IC development using our joint IP. It was a gift from a customer who was looking to do more business with us.

But rather than expressing interest in their offer, our CTO (who had arrived late) stood up and went on a rant that "We, the semiconductor company" would decide on architectures and no architectures that we did not own would be made in our fabs. That was that, and he proceeded to leave the meeting in a huff.

The customer asked who that was and if he was the one who decided such things. After a long pause someone said yes it was the CTO and yes, it was his decision. From the looks on their faces, we could see that the customers were puzzled by this answer and what they heard from the CTO. Perhaps they were thinking how their CTO would not act like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum.

The customers then said that they were not here to ask our permission, they wanted to partner with us and do more business with us. So, if we weren't interested, they would take their business elsewhere. Of course, as a semiconductor company we were still fighting yesterday's war and were hanging onto value propositions that were rapidly going away. Fabs and architectures.

Fast forward to today when we have architectures and modules which one can license without any trouble at all. Additionally, the newer fabs are usually not ones built by semiconductor companies but rather by large contract fab companies and subsidized by governments. The latest downturn caused by a combination of Covid, demand upturn, the Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as other factors caused lead times to go to the max again, for a longer than usual period. This disruption to the supply chain has given customers another reason to avoid their traditional dependence on semiconductor companies and work directly with the fabs.

But they had plenty of reasons to do so before the pandemic. Often being a customer of a semiconductor company is an unpleasant experience. These companies, especially the large ones, can be arrogant and self-centered. Moreover, the larger semiconductor companies have agendas and margin goals, optimizing products for markets and business cases, not individual customers. In short, if you are a customer of a semiconductor company you are a customer, but not the customer.

They have other customers too and of course the investors—Wall Street, who are the real customers. These investor customers have become more important in the modern world than the product-purchasing customers. Among other problems, semiconductor companies can also be unpredictable. They can discontinue parts with little notice, push out lead times, give capacity to more-favored customers and do other unpleasant and unexpected things.

The investors of course want to hear about all the fantastic design-ins and wonderment of Mr. Big OEM's usages. This could result in a cascading failure mechanism for the semiconductor company. For example, sometimes they get bypassed by the large OEM. So, then they cannot write wonderful things about the usages, which drops revenue and stock prices, while the OEM finds they can get by simply fine without them. This means the semiconductor company becomes even less relevant to other large OEMs and so on. This makes things worse of course.

Currently, this discussion of make versus buy only applies to the "gorilla" parts. In other words, SOCs, highly integrated ICs, multicore processors, and perhaps RFICs—the more specialized and complex devices. In other words, the electronics customers can take matters into their own hands by hiring smart designers who might generally prefer to work for the big OEM vs. a semiconductor company, and fab the parts in whatever foundry suits them.

In that case, if you're the customer, you don't have to put up with the dysfunctional semiconductor company's erratic ability to do what you need or deliver products. Your IC can be exactly what you want it to be, it can give you a competitive advantage and you don't have to use a part optimized broadly for a large customer base.

Furthermore, you don't have to put up with the "I need a business case" from the semiconductor marketing teams. If your foundry can deliver, you can cut out the intermediary (the semiconductor company) who might send your fab capacity or parts to another, more-favored customer. And of course, the semiconductor company is keeping a big cut of the margin for themselves.

So, if you are a large electronics company and you just went through years of not being able to get products you need, why would you sign up for more abuse? This is why we see the announcements in the industry publications about so-and-so partnering with "insert foundry name here" to build their latest highly integrated processor and multifunction IC. It gives them the competitive advantages they need to win in the market, and they don't have to put up with suppliers who act like teenagers.

This trend is putting more pressure on the semiconductor companies to find some technologies which are not otherwise available via the foundry partners. Their other option is to hire better, smarter engineers than the OEMs can. However, this isn't necessarily that easy since it might be more prestigious and lucrative for the engineers to work for the significant OEM than for the semiconductor company. It's hard-to-find good talent as evidenced by the ongoing announcements of talent shortages in the industry.

With this talent shortage in mind what are the large electronics companies not going to do themselves? Discrete semiconductors. In general, it's probably not worth it to design and contract the building of small-signal devices and discretes, commodity linear devices, high-function analog ICs, data converters and most specialty RF devices. Also, with integrated modules like Wi-Fi and LTE modules, it's easier to buy those than build them, in part because they need FCC and other certifications that are complex and costly to obtain.

The large electronics companies will be evaluating the design and make-vs-buy based on whether it gives them a competitive advantage, whether they have the needed skillsets to design and make the device and whether they can get the device in question on the open market from several suppliers. Regular power semiconductors and ICs, TVSs, rectifiers, MOSFETS, and regulators such as the LM78xx, LM1117, and LM317 will just be bought from suppliers because no competitive advantages can be obtained by designing and having a foundry build them.

On the other hand, highly specialized PMUs and PMICs that are differentiated, highly integrated and can give a competitive advantage, probably will be designed in-house. FPGAs are probably safe for applications that don't dictate high enough volumes to make a custom IC. As an aside, it's interesting how the large, formerly independent FPGA companies are now owned by major microprocessor semiconductor companies. That was a good way for the microprocessor manufacturers to hedge bets when companies that don't have the volumes for custom ICs need something they can customize without designing and fab'ing their own SOC processor system.

What about WBG devices? SiC an GaN? I simply don't know—we will see. There are foundries for WBG devices too so if the suppliers get fussy it's possible that an OEM could bypass them. You do see major OEMs partnering with WBG semiconductor companies. However, if they don't perform, the next step could be to toss that partner into the weeds, and get a foundry partner who can deliver what they want.

Additionally, the GPU companies are probably safe unless the major electronics companies integrate GPU cores into SOCs or other devices. Perhaps AI will start designing ICs or the AI processors will be integrated into the SOC. It's going to be interesting to see how this develops and I am glad that I am mostly watching from the bleachers.

It's natural to wonder what the semiconductor companies are doing about this loss of business to the foundry companies. You would think there would be a panic with management crying "what are we going to do?" Well, like Polaroid, Kodak, RCA and other industry giants who came before, they seem to be turning a blind eye to the changes. The attitude seems to be "everything is going to be fine, we have been here forever, and we will be here forever."

If the chip makers are concerned, it's not showing. Although I could be wrong and they may be holding internal meetings about future threats and opportunities, my impression is that they are too internally focused for that. Changing the culture of arrogant entitlement is difficult.

Only time will tell how this will shake out. But the foundry companies are not going away, so OEMs will continue to have the option of make versus buy for semiconductors. And when supply chain shortages are a determining factor, as they have been in the automotive industry, it will only push equipment manufacturers more in the direction of designing their own chips and having them built in fabs, removing the semiconductor middlemen.

Semiconductor companies created this customer behavior through their actions, so my thinking is "you broke it, you fix it—if it's not too late". But they probably don't even realize that they caused the customers to explore alternative options in the first place. After all, no single raindrop thinks it's responsible for the flood.

On the other hand, looking at the big picture, it's probably just the natural course of the industry. Years ago, electronics companies were vertically integrated to the extent that they made their own PCBs, chassis and enclosures. Now they simply design or specify them and have their PCBs made and populated elsewhere as are other mechanical parts. Perhaps customers designing their own chips is simply the next step in this process.

For Further Reading

On semiconductor companies' difficulties in forecasting:

• "How the world went from a semiconductor shortage to a major glut" by Arjun Kharpal, CNBC.com, July 27, 2023.

On the availability of chip architectures:

• A chip design that changes everything: 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2023" by Sophia Chen, MIT Technology Review, January 9, 2023.

On OEMs partnering with foundry companies to make their own chips:

• "General Motors signs deal with GlobalFoundries for exclusive U.S. semiconductor production" by Michael Wayland, CNBC, February 9, 2023.
• "GM–GlobalFoundries Partnership Seen as Setting Trend" by Alan Patterson, EETimes, March 31, 2023.
• "Apple Wants More of its Own Chips, Revolutionizing the Supply Chain" by Pablo Valerio, EPS News, January 26, 2023.
• "Stellantis builds a 'comprehensive ecosystem' to avoid key EV supply chain risks" by Peter Johnson, Electrek, July 18, 2023.

About The Author

Kevin Parmenter is an IEEE Senior Member and has over 20 years of experience in the electronics and semiconductor industry. Kevin is currently director of Field Applications Engineering North America for Taiwan Semiconductor. Previously he was vice president of applications engineering in the U.S.A. for Excelsys, an Advanced Energy company; director of Advanced Technical Marketing for Digital Power Products at Exar; and led global product applications engineering and new product definition for Freescale Semiconductors AMPD - Analog, Mixed Signal and Power Division.

Prior to that, Kevin worked for Fairchild Semiconductor in the Americas as senior director of field applications engineering and held various technical and management positions with increasing responsibility at ON Semiconductor and in the Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector. Kevin also led an applications engineering team for the start-up Primarion. Kevin serves on the board of directors of the PSMA (Power Sources Manufacturers Association) and was the general chair of APEC 2009 (the IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference.) Kevin has also had design engineering experience in the medical electronics and military electronics fields. He holds a BSEE and BS in Business Administration, is a member of the IEEE, and holds an Amateur Extra class FCC license (call sign KG5Q) as well as an FCC Commercial Radiotelephone License.

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