1. APEC 2020 in New Orleans – Adding Cajun Spice to Our World-Class Meeting
   
2. 2019 PSMA Planning Meeting in New Orleans, LA
   
3. Meet Your Directors
   
4. About Our Members
   
5. Welcome to PSMA
   
6. PSMA Magnetics Committee and IEEE PELS High Frequency Magnetics Workshop
   
7. PSMA Capacitor Committee and IEEE PELS Capacitor Workshop: How to Choose and Define Capacitor Usage for Emerging Applications
   
8. Announcing EnerHarv2020 – Building the ecosystem for Powering the Internet of Things
   
9. International Symposium on 3D Power Electronics Integration and Manufacturing: 3D-PEIM 2020 Call for Papers
   
10. The 7th Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications (WiPDA 2019)
    
11. 2019 IEEE PELS/PSMA Phoenix Workshop on Packaging and Integration in Power Delivery (PwrPack) - An Exploratory Discussion Leading to PwrSoC2020
    
12. 2020 International Power Supply-on-Chip (PwrSoC) Workshop
    
13. Smart Power for a Smart Industry
14. Explaining the ROI of Compliance Efforts to Your Colleagues
    
15. 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: Q1_2019 | Q2_2019 | Q3_2019

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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.

 

ttendees of the Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC 2020) will converge on New Orleans, March 15-19, 2020, adding a bit of Cajun influence to our annual meeting.  Chicory coffee and beignets, jambalaya, po'boys, great music…  As the folks in NOLA like to say, "Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler." – that is, "Let the Good Times Roll."

Yes, it is indeed a "bon temps" to be part of the dynamic power electronics industry. So, start making your plans to come and join in. Registration is now open for the Conference Sessions (Tuesday-Thursday) and for the Professional Development Seminars (Sunday-Monday).  As always, APEC 2020, will be packed with valuable educational experience, expanded Industry Sessions, more hours to explore a dynamic exhibit featuring the latest products and enjoyable social events.

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

On the Saturday prior to the start of APEC2020, PSMA and PELS will again be sponsoring two workshops, the fifth High Frequency Magnetics Workshop and the third Capacitor Workshop. For more information see the articles on each workshop in this issue of the UPDATE.

Speaking for all of us on the APEC Conference Committee, I invite you to come to New Orleans to be part of our annual gathering. You really don't want to miss it.  Check the APEC website for details (www.apec-conf.org).

If you haven't already made plans to attend, don't wait any longer. Be sure you have it in your 2020 budget to attend this exceptional event – truly The Premier Event in Applied Power Electronics™

Provided by Greg Evans, APEC 2020 Publicity Chair

he 2019 PSMA Planning Meeting was held on October 5, 2019 at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside in New Orleans, LA with 24 members in attendance. The purpose of the Planning Meeting was to review where the Association is today, discuss outstanding issues and to identify possible programs and projects that promise to bring value to the membership.

PSMA Chairman Stephen Oliver led the meeting and reviewed his vision for the organization and summarized the general health of the association as well as membership statistics and the changes since the 2018 Planning Meeting. He listed organizations PSMA interacts with, reviewed recent sponsored conferences and workshops and emphasized that the technical committees are the heart of the organization. It is in these committees that the real work of PSMA is done.

In discussing some of the areas of concern to the organization he highlighted the need to continue to invest in special projects that will bring value to our members, increase the effort to develop more and deeper involvement with more individuals within member companies and the continued commitment to bring more industry content to APEC.

Stephen reported on the progress of the "Tiger Teams", powerful, agile groups of experts brought together for a single, short project, formed out of the 2018 Planning Meeting. He noted that the Tiger Team list will be reviewed and updated at the end of the meeting based on the topics identified during the meeting.

Tim McDonald, Secretary/Treasurer, presented a preliminary draft of the latest 6-Quarter financial forecast, which indicated that the Association will remain in a reasonable financial position over the period which will allow funding to support Special Projects that promise to bring value to the membership and the industry.

There was a report from each of the technical committees that summarized their accomplishments over the past year and focused on ongoing programs and projects for 2020. Eight of the technical committees have submitted proposals to organize Industry Sessions at APEC 2020 and all technical committees are supporting the 2021 Power Technology Roadmap effort. In addition:

• Pierre Lohrber, Capacitor Committee Co-Chair, reported that the committee has completed 2 educational webinars on Capacitor Fundamentals, and is planning a third webinar in January. They are also organizing the third pre-APEC workshop "How to Choose and Define Capacitor Usage for Various Applications, Wideband Trends, and New Technologies"  
• Energy Harvesting Committee Co-Chairs Mike Hayes and Brian Zahnstecher reported that the committee is organizing EnerHarv 2020 to be held at NCSU in June 2020. The committee is hoping to organize a student competition and looking for volunteers to help with this effort.
• David Chen and Ed Herbert, Energy Management Committee Co-Chairs, reported that the committee is considering a potential research project for 2020 on residential energy storage or a report summarizing worldwide standards and regulations. The committee continues to support the Energy Efficiency Database (EEDB) on the PSMA website.
• An Industry-Education meeting was held prior to the main planning meeting which had active participation and suggestions from all attendees. In recent years the committee has primarily focused on APEC Student Travel Support, but there is a lot of interest in expanding the committee activities. Following up on the face-to-face meeting, there will be a teleconference in November for all interested members to develop specific programs and activities aimed at students to help them to better understand the power industry and making informed career decisions.
• Ed Herbert, Magnetics Committee Co-Chair, reported that the committee held a very successful Magnetics Workshop at APEC 2019 and is organizing a fifrth Power Magnetics @ High Frequency Workshop, for the Saturday before APEC 2020. The committee is also working on a Special Project with SMA on core testing and continues to support the Magnetics reprints available from the PSMA website.
• Frank Cirolia and Greg Evans, Marketing Committee Co-Chair, reviewed the recent activities of the committee including plans for APEC 2020. For the seventh year, the committee will sponsor the "PSMA Passport Game" to increase visibility and traffic to PSMA member exhibit booths during APEC and is exploring options for including the Passport in the APEC app in the future. A major focus at APEC 2020 will be on PSMA turning 35, including a "birthday party" at the PSMA booth in the Expo Hall, a memory wall, a large display that participants can sign listing what they appreciate about PSMA, an interactive timeline video and more. The committee is also supporting the 35th Anniversary article and podcast project which will include 12 monthly feature-length articles in Electronic Design and 8-10 podcasts published by EEWorld. A new PSMA logo is being designed and the proposed logo is currently being reviewed. And the committee is working to update the "Handbook of Standardized Terminology" and considering making it web based.
• The Power Electronics Packaging Committee continues to be very active, with 2-4 meetings a month, as reported by committee Co-Chair, Ernie Parker. IWIPP 2019 in Toulouse in April was very successful with over 90 attendees (target was 70). The committee is organizing the 3D-PEIM 2020 Symposium to be held in Osaka Japan in June. The committee is also planning for PwrSoC 2020 at the University of Pennsylvania and PwrPack, a mini PwrSoC, at Arizona State University in October 2019.
• Conor Quinn, Power Technology Roadmap Committee Co-Chair, reported that the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap Report was published in March and was the subject of a Plenary Presentation at APEC 2019.  The PTR 2021 Committee will be formed in December 2019. The committee will include both returning Section Leaders and New Blood – volunteers and nominees are welcome. A new PTR webinar series will begin in January of 2020 and continue through the year.  The 2021 Power Technology Roadmap Report needs to be finalized by December of 2020 and the report will be published in March, in time for APEC 2021.
• Reliability Committee Co-Chair Brian Zahnstecher reported that the committee was formed in July 2017 and now has 27 members. The Power Supply SW/FW Reliability report was recently completed and a copy was sent to all PSMA Regular members.  The committee's next proposed project is to create and publish a document (or series of documents) to enhance procedures for development, interaction, and verification of communication bus to improve Quality & Reliability.

• While the Safety & Compliance Committee is not meeting currently and looking for new leadership, the committee continues to support the Safety and Compliance Data Base (SCDB)on the PSMA website. Arnold Alderman provided an update on the SCDB. The database continues to grow both in the number of standards, regions and agencies tracked and the number of registered users. Committee members also contribute a monthly column in How2Power.
• Semiconductor Committee Co-Chair Tim McDonald reported that the committee has proposed 4 Industry Sessions for APEC 2020. The committee will manage the Component Technology section of the 2021 Power Technology Roadmap Report and plans to contribute a minimum of 6 webinars for the Roadmap webinar series.  The committee is also supporting as technical and financial co-sponsor with IEEE PELS the WiPDA Workshop in Raleigh, NC.
• Fred Weber, Transportation Power Electronics Committee Co-Chair, report that the committee is planning a webinar on what the DOE is doing to enable electrification of vehicles and their infrastructure. The committee supported a 2019 study of automotive executives and engineers.  The results were clear – few in this industry were aware of PSMA and/or APEC.  If PSMA wants to reach this segment, a clearly stated business case for automotive OEMs and Tier 1s to join PSMA is needed.  A flyer will be created to help in those efforts and a tiger team is suggested to help drive this initiative to expand PSMA membership in the Automotive Industry.

During the Committee Reports a number of issues and possible future activities were identified and discussed. These issues will be the focus for PSMA over the next year (and beyond).

Following the committee reports, PSMA President Mike Hayes led the Planning Discussion which focused on updating the Tiger Teams lists based on initiatives and topics identified during the meeting.

PSMA members can view the minutes of the Planning Meeting on the "Members Only" section of the PSMA web site.

The APEC Technical Program Committee for APEC 2020 met on Sunday and were joined by many of the PSMA members from the Planning Meeting. Based on the results of their work we can all look forward to a very interesting and a successful APEC 2020.

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 Dhaval Dalal who is currently serving his first term and Stephen Oliver and Kevin Parmenter who are both serving their second terms.

Dhaval Dalal is responsible for defining and providing components for high power solutions to customers, in his current role at ON Semiconductor. Prior to re-joining the Company in July 2014, Mr. Dalal worked for six years as a Power Electronics consultant in Bangalore, India. During that period, he developed reference designs and solutions for various power electronics applications.

From 2002 to 2008, Dhaval worked at ON Semiconductor as Director of Systems Engineering where he was responsible for defining the strategy, roadmaps and technical content of many products for power supply applications. Previously, he worked at TI/Unitrode, Digital Equipment Corporation and Philips Laboratories.

Dhaval's educational background includes a B.Tech. (EE) from IIT-Bombay, an MSEE from Virginia Tech and a Master's in Management of Technology from NTU. He has published and presented more than 25 technical articles, papers and invited talks. He serves as the co-chair of Power Technology Roadmap Committee and on the Board of Directors of PSMA (Power Sources Manufacturers' Association) and is also a participant in the iNEMI roadmap activity. Dhaval holds five U.S. patents.
 

Provided by Dhaval Dalal, System Applications Director,
Power Solutions Group, ON Semiconductor

Provided by Stephen Oliver,
VP Sales & Marketing, Navitas Semiconductor

Provided by Kevin Parmenter, Director of Field Applications
Engineering North America, Taiwan Semiconductor

 
ow2Power.com is an online power electronics publication and website for engineers. It's edited by me, David Morrison. You'll see a little picture of me on the How2Power.com home page and in the monthly e-newsletter, How2Power Today. This will help you to identify me, when we run into each other at APEC, ECCE, CES, NSREC, WiPDA, EMC+SIPI, ITEC, or various other conferences I attend throughout the year. I placed that picture on my website 10 years ago when I launched it, so please imagine a few more gray hairs and wrinkles when trying to match me to the photo.

How2Power.com is not your average power electronics publication, or average anything. If you're a PSMA member, than you have more than a passing interest in power electronics and you have probably seen our monthly e-newsletter, How2Power Today. If so, you know we publish very technical articles covering a wide range of issues in power supply design. We also dig deeply into the practical but unglamorous issues like Magnetics, Safety & Compliance, and increasingly, EMI/EMC issues.

If we're able to go into greater depth in this newsletter, that's because we get such valuable contributions from very knowledgeable engineers in industry. I can't name the hundreds who have contributed articles over the years, but I feel compelled to name some of the most prolific: Kevin Parmenter, Jim Spangler, Dennis Feucht, Steve Sandler, Tim Hegarty, Christophe Basso, Viktor Vogman, and Gregory Mirsky.

While we're very proud of the How2Power Today newsletter, if that's all you know about How2Power.com, you've only seen the tip of the iceberg. We have a unique article search tool called the How2Power Design Guide that lets you search our free article database using a search menu geared to power design. The search results include our summaries of over 1000 technical articles relating to power design from How2Power and other free, reputable sources.

How2Power also has detailed special sections devoted to:

• Power Magnetics       
• SiC & GaN Technology
• Motor Drives
• Space (Rad Hard) Power
• Military Power Supplies
• Safety & Compliance
• Power Supply EMI
• FAE Confidential!

We also have a handy power electronics consultants directory and one of the most extensive industry events calendar. While this calendar can be  useful to engineers, it's even more helpful for sales or marketing people trying to figure our where to exhibit their power components or power supplies.

Any description of How2Power would be incomplete without a few words about our audience. While we have extensive readership at power semiconductor and power supply companies, our readership includes engineers working in a wide range of industries. This sampling of well-known reader companies will help to paint a picture of our audience.

Thanks to our conference activities, How2Power also has extensive readership among instructors and grad students at universities across the world. Many who are students today will be your engineering colleagues tomorrow.

There's more to tell about How2Power. But we have always tried to respect your time by not flooding you with emails or ads, giving you lots of summaries of great articles, and making them easy to access and read. So please explore How2Power.com and if you have any questions, feel free to write me at david@how2power.com.

Provided by David Morrison, Editor and Founder, How2Power.com

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.

FRENETIC

Jose Maria Molina
C/Rio Rosas 36
Madrid 28003
Spain
Telephone: 915 29 60 07
E-mail: jose@spfrenetic.com
Website: spfrenetic.com

Founded in 2017, Frenetic was created with the goal of making magnetics simple. They are a power electronics company that is revolutionizing the world of magnetics with their A.I. technology, which is replacing the need for antiquated engineering methods. This technology is used to design optimal transformers and inductors, build samples in our laboratory and even assist with circuit integration.

ISE Magnetics

SMA Batenburg
Droogdokkeneiland 29
5026 SP Tilburg
The Netherlands
Telephone: 0031-134625910
E-mail: engineering@ise.nl
Website: www.isemagnetics.com

ISE (Inductive Systems Europe) is headquartered in The Netherlands with (production) offices in Hungary and France. ISE is a designer and manufacturer of custom specific inductive solutions, that are developed for a large range of markets to last many years. ISE's customers include medical, aerospace, general electronics (SMPS) and many other high tech applications.

With production locally and in eastern-Europe, as well as strictly controlled subcontracting in Asia, ISE provides fastlane solutions at competitive prices. ISE's main principles are quality of design and finished product.

Harish Sarma Krishnamoorthy

University of Houston
4726 Calhoun Rd.
Houston, TX 77204
Telephone: 713-743-7382
E-mail: hskrishn@uh.edu
Website: pemses.ece.uh.edu/

Harish S. Krishnamoorthy received his B.Tech degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from National Institute of Technology (NIT), Tiruchirappalli, India and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX. At present, he is an assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer science engineering at the University of Houston. Prior to this, he was the electrical engineer in the Houston Formation Evaluation (HFE) Center at Schlumberger REMS, Houston, TX. He has also worked as an electronics engineer in the New Product Introduction team General Electric (GE) Energy and as Research Supplemental Engineer and Hardware Engineering Intern in Ford and Google Inc. His research interests are in the area of power electronic converters and control, power conversion for data centers, electric vehicles, batteries, high power density converters and packaging techniques for applications in extreme environments, power supply design, modeling and control, analog circuit design and EMI/EMC, six sigma based statistical analysis for power systems, IoT applications and renewable energy systems.

PSMA Magnetics Committee and IEEE PELS High Frequency Magnetics Workshop
Power Magnetics @ High Frequency
Date: Saturday March 14, 2020
Prior to APEC 2020
Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
New Orleans, LA

he PSMA Magnetics Committee and IEEE PELS will conduct the fifth "Power Magnetics @ High Frequency" workshop on Saturday, March 14, 2020, which is the day before and at the same venue as APEC 2020.

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

The workshop will consist of two technical lecture presentation sessions, an interactive technology demonstration session and a wrap up session summarizing the presentations and their potential impact on the power electronics community. The two technical lecture sessions will each be followed with a panel Q&A session. The technology demonstrations will also be available during the breakfast just prior to the opening session of the workshop, during lunch and during the networking session following the workshop's formal presentations.

The morning technical presentations will be on Modelling and Characterization beginning with a keynote presentation by Tom Wilson of SIMPLIS Technologies that addresses the challenges of modelling non-linear properties of power magnetic components. Tom will touch upon topics such as creating models for conductor losses that take into account distribution of the conductors and their position relative to the air gap and creating models for core losses that take into account variations due to dc bias and temperature from core loss measurements made with triangular flux excitation. Tom will present an example of a design for an LLC dc-dc converter demonstrating the impacts of various design options based on modelling the non-linear properties of magnetic components.

Mike Wens of MinDCet will provide a presentation on the characterization of magnetics with large signal waveforms that are representative of the actual operating waveforms. Presenters are being confirmed to discuss  the topic of FEA simulations considering both linear and non-linear properties of magnetic materials, the topic of measurement methods and deriving loss models from test measurements and the topic of use of FEA simulations to develop inductor and transformer parameters for spice modelling of different winding techniques. The morning session will be followed with a panel Q&A consisting of the morning's presenters.

During the breakfast, lunch and network hour sessions there will be interactive technology demonstration presentations where the workshop attendees can visit and engage with the experts as they provide technical demonstrations of different topics associated with magnetics design, modelling and characterization. The confirmed technology demonstrations at this time include:

• real time inductor design using artificial intelligence (Frenetics),
• modelling and simulation of nonlinear magnetics (SIMPLIS Technologies),
• pulse characterization of magnetic components (Bs&T),
• inductance characterization of magnetic components in the MHz frequency range with a bias range of 0 ADC thru 125 ADC (Omicron Lab),
•  thermal behavior of power inductors at high frequency operation (Wurth Elektronik),
• impact of leakage inductance on performance of SEPIC/CUK dc-dc converter (Wurth Elektronik),
• impact of permittivity on core losses (Rodney Rogers), and
• recent advances in iron composite powder cores (Micrometals)

Additional technical demonstrations are currently being considered for computer aided design of power magnetic components, tradeoffs between vector network analyzers, near magnetic field characterizations, impedance analyzers and LCR meters for characterization of magnetic components and emerging magnetic materials and structures for commercial applications.

Attendees will also be able to visit the technical demonstrations for the Capacitor Workshop "How to Choose and Define Capacitor Usage for Emerging Applications" that will be held concurrently.

The afternoon session will be a Survey of Winding Techniques Used in Power Magnetic Components. The session will begin with a keynote presentation by Dr. Charles Sullivan of Dartmouth University that will provide a technical overview of various winding techniques used to achieve specific technical performance goals as well as an overview of the topics to be covered in the afternoon session.

Jannik Schafer of ETH Zurich will speak on the design of PCB winding inductors employing the CCFC Compensating Fringing Field Concept. There will also be presentations of unique winding structures from different manufacturers as well as presentations of the design considerations for copper foil, stranded wire and litz wire coil constructions. The afternoon session will be followed with a panel Q&A consisting of the afternoon's presenters.

The workshop will conclude with a general review of the workshop presentations and their potential impact to improve the power electronics industry by Alexander Gerfer of Wurth Elektronik.

Following the closing remarks will be a networking hour with hors d'oeuvres, soft drinks, wine and beer from 5:00 to 6:00. This will provide an additional opportunity to visit the technology demonstration stations.

The registration fee for the workshop is $360 per participant reducing to $260 for PSMA members and IEEE PELS members. On February 1, 2019 the registration fee will increase to $400 reducing to $300 for PSMA members and IEEE PELS members. The day of workshop registration fee will be $425 reducing to $325 for PSMA members and IEEE PELS members if seating is available. There is an option at a nominal fee of $5 to obtain Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for attending in this workshop. Breakfast and lunch will be provided as part of the workshop. Electronic copies of the technical lecture presentations and technology demonstration presentations will be made available to the workshop participants.

Registration is open and you can register for the Power Magnetics @ High Frequency workshop at www.psma.com/webforms/power-magnetics-high-frequency-workshop-2020-registration

There will be up to four student waivers for registrations fees. Students can apply for one of the four available waivers at www.psma.com/webforms/power-magnetics-high-frequency-student-registration-fee-waiver-2020

If you are interested in being a presenter for any of the unconfirmed presentation topics during the morning or afternoon technical lecture sessions, please submit a proposal to the PSMA office (power@psma.com ).

More details regarding the agenda for the workshop will become available on the PSMA website over the next few months at: http://www.psma.com/technical-forums/magnetics/workshop.

Organizing Committee
Steve Carlsen, Raytheon
Ed Herbert
Rodney Rogers
George Slama, Wurth Elektronik
Fred Weber, Future Technology Worldwide
Chuck Wild, Dexter Magnetics
Matt Wilkowski, EnaChip

How to Choose and Define Capacitor Usage for Emerging Applications
Saturday March 14 2020
Prior to APEC 2020
Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
New Orleans, LA 70130

he PSMA Capacitor Technical Committee and IEEE PELS are jointly Sponsoring the third pre-APEC Capacitor Workshop on Saturday March 14, 2020, the day before the conference begins, at the New Orleans Convention Center. The 2020 workshop follows up the successful Workshops in 2018, and 2019. Feedback from the previous workshops showed that these events delivered valuable insights to attendees and provided ideas for what topics to address in the 2020 workshop around Capacitors, their technologies and applications. The workshop is designed to bring value to everyone, from newcomers to advanced designers of DC-DC converters, frequency drives, inverters, and other power conversation applications.

The workshop organizing committee has a clear mission:

The PSMA Capacitor Committee/ IEEE PELS Annual pre-APEC Workshop will educate the attendees on capacitor trends, technologies, and innovations. Wherever and whenever applications need energy, Capacitors are at the spotlight, and as energy moves the world it is incumbent for everyone to keep their finger on the pulse of capacitor issues. The PSMA/PELS Workshop Organizing Committee is committed to present the best material available to meet the industry's needs.

Since APEC 2020 is fast approaching, now is the time to plan to attend! Capacitors represent two thirds of the overall passive components market, and the generic importance of capacitors in the electronic world is well known - but sometimes not well understood. In addition, the changing product landscape with the painful situation in 2018 with the massive MLCC undersupply has challenged many designers and product planners. Make your plans to participate in the Pre-APEC 2020 Capacitor Workshop and enhance your knowledge and productivity.

The Pre-APEC 2020 Capacitor Workshop will focus on a number of topics from Aerospace and Aeronautics to Automotive and eMobility. Representatives from world Class Manufacturers and technical specialists will also spotlight on the challenges of wideband trends and new telecommunication standards like 5G as well as providing insights into the latest capacitor technologies and trends attendees should be following. Engineers with broad hardware development experience will discuss the most efficient designs for SMPS' and also focus on how to prevent EMI issues. Researchers from universities and institutes will dive into the future of capacitor technologies and present what comes next. All of the presentations will focus into the workshop headline: "How to choose and define capacitor usage for emerging applications, wideband trends, and new technologies".

The presenters of this workshop are all experts coming from various backgrounds ranging from worldwide leading capacitor manufacturers, international universities, and technical institutions. In addition, many of the presenters are industry experts in designing circuits and applications, as well as specialists in the manufacturer of capacitors. They will provide a broad range of insights, news and relevant information to help you apply the best solutions in your daily work with capacitors. As capacitors are the most used components in the electronic world, establishing common terminology and identifying their behavior in finding the "best fit solution" are the main goals of this workshop. With a deep dive into state-of -the- art for materials and components, a roadmap of technologies and an application roundup, attendees will gain value and benefits from this workshop. in many ways.

The organizers of the Workshop aim to have a perfect balance between practical content delivered by capacitor manufacturers mixed with content offered by worldwide leading universities and their lectures on future capacitor research & development. Surrounded by keynotes of forward-thinking market players the interactive sessions at the Workshop promise to deliver a fruitful package to attendees.

To round up this workshop and make it more beneficial, there will be demonstration stations available during breakfast, lunch and the afternoon networking session to add practical backgrounds to the topics discussed in the presentations. Specialists in applications and measurements will be available to answer questions on capacitors and their applications. Attendees will also be able to visit the technical demonstrations for the Power Magnetics @ High Frequency Workshop that will be held concurrently. There will be a reception during the closing demonstration session with hors d'oeuvres and drinks to provide additional informal networking opportunities.

The registration fee for the workshop is $360 per participant reducing to $260 for PSMA members and IEEE PELS members. On February 1, 2019 the registration fee will increase to $400 reducing to $300 for PSMA members and IEEE PELS members. The day of workshop registration fee will be $425 reducing to $325 for PSMA members and IEEE PELS members if seating is available. There is an option at a nominal fee of $5 to obtain Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for attending in this workshop. Breakfast and lunch will be provided as part of the workshop. Electronic copies of the technical lecture presentations and technology demonstration presentations will be made available to the workshop participants.

Registration is open and you can register for the workshop at the following url: https://www.psma.com/webforms/how-choose-and-define-capacitor-usage-emerging-applications-workshop-2020-registration

Additionally, waivers for their Workshop registration fee are available for up to 4 students who will have the opportunity to have a Poster in the demonstration area and to give a short presentation of their research during the workshop on topics related to "Requirements on Capacitors for various applications like wideband gap, aeronautics and high frequencies". Students can submit their poster proposal and apply for the fee waiver at https://www.psma.com/webforms/capacitor-workshop-student-registration-fee-waiver-2020

The latest agenda, registration, and additional information is available at www.psma.com/technical-forums/capacitor/workshop.

Provided by members of the Capacitor Workshop Organizing Team:

Pierre Lohrber, Wurth Electronics
Fred Weber, Future Technology Worldwide

16-18 June 2020
ASSIST Center, North Carolina State University

SMA and NCSU are pleased to announce the EnerHarv 2020 international workshop on energy harvesting and micro-power management will held from 16-18 June 2020 in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA and hosted by NC State (North Carolina State University). The event will be managed by the Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies (ASSIST) at NCSU.

The mission remains unchanged from the inaugural EnerHarv 2018, to create 'a focal point for a community of experts and users of energy harvesting & related technologies to share knowledge, best practices, roadmaps, experiences and create opportunities for collaboration' primarily in the wireless IoT edge device sector www.EnerHarv.com. EnerHarv 2018 was hailed as a major success indicating a clear need for a workshop of this nature to help build, grow, sustain, guide and inform the 'power IoT ecosystem.' As an exciting part of this announcement, we are pleased to also announce the full EnerHarv 2018 proceedings have now been made free and open to the public and can be found here: http://www.enerharv.com/enerharv-2018-data-repository/.

EnerHarv was set up to help solve the 'trillion sensor challenge' of 2025, recognizing most of the world's IoT devices will require a portable power source such as a battery that needs to outlive the device that it powers. Although energy harvesting plays an important role, powering these devices is not just about energy harvesting (which is not always possible in many operational environments) but also embedding power management technologies that minimize the 'battery drain' and maximise the conversion and storage efficiencies. Furthermore, minimizing the power consumption of sensing, computation, and communication electronics plays a critical role.

EnerHarv 2018 showed the value in bringing a broad range of stakeholders to our ecosystem (e.g. packaging, software, industrial design) and the critical need to bring in end-users across multiple applications (building management, medical technologies, assisted living, environmental, conditional monitoring of equipment, systems, power supplies). These considerations strongly influenced the decision to host the event in the Raleigh/Durham area, where there is a hotbed of industrial and academic activity and a collaborative ecosystem is already in place.

EnerHarv 2018 demonstrated a need for technology and thought leadership in this sector and the potential benefits of emerging technologies, if properly guided and integrated. It cross connects not just suppliers and developers of power electronics components and systems but also demonstrates the power of collaboration when experts from power electronics, ICT and MEMS co-develop standardized, inter-operable and system optimized solutions for real life applications.

Attendees will learn of the many constituents of existing and emerging 'power IoT' solutions and how to apply these in a system-optimized way creating high impact solutions for a broader range of applications. Through networking, attending tutorials, panel sessions, viewing real life demos and participating in discussions, attendees will gain a step function increase in their knowledge and ability to develop/gain access to energy harvesting powered solutions. EnerHarv 2020 will also be supported by (i) CPSS, (ii) the EU EnABLES project,  which is already building an international 'power IoT' community comprising almost 300 academic and industry stakeholders (www.enables-project.eu) and (iii) IEEE PELS, the largest power electronics professional society in the world under the biggest professional organization in the world.

EnerHarv 2020 will be chaired by Prof. Mehmet C. Ozturk, deputy director of the ASSIST Center. Brian Zahnstecher from PowerRox (representing PSMA) shall be co-chair. Technical chairs Mike Hayes from Tyndall and Shad Roundy from the University of Utah shall represent PSMA & ASSIST respectively.

In the next few weeks the EnerHarv 2020 committee will announce exciting keynotes and an outline agenda. Anyone interested in learning more or participating should contact either of the chairs below at www.enerharv.com/contact/.

An opportunity not to be missed for anyone interested in 'powering the internet of things'.

	Provided by
Mehmet Ozturk, NC State (General chair)				Brian Zahnstecher, PowerRox (General co-chair)

Call for Papers
June 22-24, 2020
Osaka University, Japan

PACKAGING is a Design Function
MANUFACTURING provides the Design Rules

he Third International Symposium on 3D Power Electronics Integration and Manufacturing (3D-PEIM-20) will be held on June 22-24, 2020.  This symposium will be held at the Osaka University, Suita Campus in Japan. This is the first time to have this symposium outside the USA and it will include worldwide experts representing a wide range of disciplinary perspectives to advance the development of future 3D power electronics systems. Asia is the factory of the world and has an extensive customer base for advanced power electronics technology. 3D-PEIM provides an excellent opportunity to learn about leading edge R&D innovations in 3D power packaging. The focus of this symposium will be on additive manufacturing, embedded component assembly, co-designed and integrative packaging technologies and will emphasize the need to address mechanical, materials, reliability, and manufacturability issues in small, smart, power dense components and modules.

The conference will feature invited plenary presentation by industry and academic leaders.  Each technical session will be highlighted by a keynote addresses from Industry or Academic expert.  In addition, the technical sessions will include 2 invited and one contributed presentation plus exhibits, and an interactive poster/demonstration session. The symposium is being organized by the Power Sources Manufacturers Association (www.psma.com), and will be chaired by Prof. Tsuyoshi Funaki of the Osaka University, Japan.  You can find additional information at www.3D-PEIM.org. 

Call for Papers Announced – Deadline January 20, 2020

Contributed papers are invited addressing important challenges related to the packaging and manufacturing of smaller, lighter, more efficient, and sustainable power electronic products, especially in the following topic areas:

• Additive Manufacturing
• Embedded Components and Embedding Technologies
• Systems Integration and Thermal Management for High-density Packaging
• Multiphysics Modeling and Simulation of Integrated Packaging and Circuit Solutions
• Materials (e.g., interconnects, encapsulants, substrates)
• Heterogeneous Integration
• Manufacturability of circuits and packaging (manufacturing processes, equipment, and standards)
• Quality and Reliability, including Prognostics and Condition Monitoring

Members of the worldwide electronics community are invited to contribute to the third international symposium on 3D Power Electronics Integration and Manufacturing (3D-PEIM). This symposium will bring together practitioners and researchers to share, discuss, and roadmap the latest developments in circuits and systems enabled through advancements in 3D packaging, integration, and manufacturing technologies. The symposium will have a full program of keynotes, invited presentations, contributed papers, interactive sessions, table-top exhibits, and laboratory tours.

Abstract Format: The abstract should consist of two pages of text with sections on the purpose of the study, the approach, the results and the significance to power electronics community, plus one page of figures, tables, and references.

ABSTRACT DEADLINE: JANUARY 20, 2020

Submission information is available at http://www.3d-peim.org/call-for-papers/submission-information/

To learn more, please contact info@3D-PEIM.Org, or the PSMA office at power@psma.com. 

We look forward to seeing you in Osaka university this coming June 2020.  

General Chair, 3D-PEIM Symposium 2020
Prof. Tsuyoshi Funaki, Osaka University
 
Technical Program Co-Chairs:
Prof. Katsuaki Suganuma, Osaka University
Prof. Guo-Quan (GQ) Lu, Virginia Tech USA
Minora Ueshima, Daicel, Japan

General Chair, 3D-PEIM Symposium 2020 Prof. Tsuyoshi Funaki, Osaka University
Technical Program Co-Chairs:
Prof. Katsuaki Suganuma, Osaka University	Minora Ueshima, Daicel, Japan	Prof. Guo-Quan (GQ) Lu, Virginia Tech USA

he 7th Annual IEEE / PSMA Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications (WiPDA 2019) took place in Raleigh, North Carolina during October 29-31, 2019.  It was held on the campus of North Carolina State University (NCSU) at the Stateview Hotel.  The event featured one day of tutorials and two days of technical discussions. It also hosted meetings for the International Technology Roadmap on Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (ITRW) as well as JEDEC's JC-70 committee, which focuses on standardization of silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor devices. More than 200 individuals from around the world gathered in Raleigh this year to share their experiences and learn about the latest developments in this field. 

WiPDA 2019’s General Chair, Victor Veliadis, provides the welcoming address to over 200 attendees

Tuesday, October 29th, began with the workshop's five tutorials focusing on the applications of wide bandgap (WBG) devices in solid state circuit breakers, data centers, electric vehicles, and medium voltage converters.  A separate presentation discussed the reliability of high voltage GaN devices.  Afterwards, attendees were able to tour NCSU's FREEDM Center Power Electronics Laboratory followed by the Opening Reception and the start of the exhibition.

Both the JC-70 committee and the ITRW working group met on the 29th.  According to Dr. Stephanie Watts Butler, chairperson for the JC-70 Committee:

JEDEC's JC-70 Wide Bandgap (WBG) power semiconductor standards committee celebrated its 2nd anniversary at WiPDA 2019.  The committee has grown to a membership of 60 companies spanning the globe consisting of power GaN and SiC semiconductor suppliers, users of WBG power semiconductors and [test and measurement (T&M)] equipment manufacturers.  

The JC-70 committee met at WiPDA to discuss current status on standards for reliability, testing, and datasheet parametrics.     In addition to making progress on crafting documents for these topic areas, the JEDEC committee has also been engaging with standards bodies around the world, such as IEC and JEITA.  This engagement demonstrates further growth in the importance and acceptance of SiC and GaN worldwide, and the user community's desire to see consistency in standards worldwide.

The technical dialogues started Wednesday morning with two keynote speeches from Peter Friedrichs of Infineon Technologies and Kevin Anderson of IHS Markit.  Friedrichs highlighted the need for optimized magnetics to improve the performance of SiC applications while Anderson talked about packaging as a bottleneck for WBG devices in traction based and wind applications.  It was also pointed out that 600 V to 1000 V applications are the emerging battleground for GaN, SiC, and silicon (Si) superjunction power devices.

A panel session was dedicated to the adoption of GaN devices and a second to SiC applications.  Reliability was a concern again this year with discussions on the need for vibration and radiation hardeness data.  However, it was mentioned that the application and testing times for both GaN and SiC are yielding much more reliable failure-in-time (FIT) data.

Tim McDonald opens WiPDA 2019’s panel sessions along with fellow panelists Alain Charles, Sandeep Bahl, Peter Di Maso, and Robert Kaplar

A strongly emphasized point at WiPDA 2019 was the need to consider system level costs.  While WBG devices, SiC in particular, are not expected to gain cost parity with Si components in the next couple of years, companies are seeing significant reductions in the corresponding costs of other areas of power electronic systems. For example, John Deere has realized meaningful reductions in DC link capacitor sizes through the application of SiC components in high power motor drives.

The Wednesday afternoon session included three more keynote speeches from Laszlo Balogh of Texas Instruments, Sandeep Bala of ABB, and Thomas Harder of the European Center for Power Electronics.  This was followed by the first of four rounds of technical sessions, and the poster session.  The evening closed with the conference banquet where Cree co-founder John Edmond and his band provided the entertainment for the event.

Attendees and presenters gather for WiPDA 2019’s poster session

Thursday morning started with another round of keynote speeches from John Palmour of Wolfspeed, Iqbal Husain from NCSU, and Yuhao Zhang from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.  During the first two talks, the need for improvements in packaging, gate drive technology, and magnetics was reiterated along with the focus on system level costs.  The third presentation discussed many new developments in vertical GaN technology, their potential impact on power electronics, and prospects for future commercialization.  Afterwards, the remaining three technical sessions took place.

A total of 99 digests were submitted to this year's event.  Forty-eight of them were accepted to one of the 12 technical tracks for oral presentations.  These included four tracks dedicated to SiC Applications, two to GaN Applications, three to SiC Devices, two to GaN Devices and one track to Thermal and Emerging technologies.  A total of 32 papers were presented at the poster session.

John Edmond, co-founder of Cree, and his band provide the entertainment at WiPDA 2019’s banquet

WiPDA 2019 is very grateful to its many financial sponsors, exhibitors, and its group of dedicated volunteers.  The workshop enjoys continued support from our two Platinum Sponsors, Infineon and Wolfspeed.  Their sustained endorsements have established WiPDA as a premier event for the WBG community.  WiPDA is also happy to welcome Applied Materials as its third Platinum Sponsor for the 2019 event.

The workshop wants to acknowledge: our Silver Sponsor, PowerAmerica; the Poster Session Sponsor, JEDEC; Kyma Tehnologies, the Lunch Sponsor; Focused Test Inc, the Coffee Break Sponsor; and the Media Partner, How2Power.com. The Technical Sponsors for WiPDA 2019 were the IEEE Power Electronic Society (PELS), the IEEE Electron Devices Society (EDS), and the Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA). The workshop would not have been possible without their commitment, nor that of the nine exhibitors, the Organizing Committee, and the Technical Program Committee as well as the paper reviewers and the student volunteers. 

Next fall, WiPDA 2020 heads to Los Angeles, CA, where Infineon Technologies will host the event.  Until then, have a happy holiday season and great New Year!

Provided by Mark Scott, WiPDA 2019 Publicity Chair

An Exploratory Discussion Leading to PwrSoC

he first PwrPACK Workshop was held on October 31 and November 1 at Arizona State University at the SkySong Synergy I Innovation was sponsored by Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA), in partnership with IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS). PwrPACK2019 was aimed at expanding the PwrSoC brand to companies and peripheral efforts typically not associated with the traditional PwrSoC focus.

Hongbin Yu, General Chair stated, "The workshop was a success with attendance exceeding our planned goal. The presenters were from the local Phoenix area with a few coming from international distances. Most importantly, the satellite PwrPACK Workshop achieved the intent to increase the awareness of the PwrSoC developments and create a lead-in to the 3-day PwrSoC Workshop that will be held at the University of Pennsylvania in 2020"

The two-half day workshop focused on two topics related to power delivery in a package:

1. Process and integration of multi-die power delivery in package
2. Power system in package (PSIP) power modules

with invited speakers from both industry and academia who addressed the challenges and opportunities in miniaturization and efficient power delivery that benefits an increasing number of application areas."

PwrPACK Attendees 2019

Jim Doyle, Technical Program Co-Chair, commented, "SkySong provided a very modern high-tech location with Workshop, restaurants, and hotel all within comfortable close proximity. With slightly over 50 attending, ASU was an outstanding host providing high-quality venue and service while keeping us within budget. Many attendees requested that future events be held at SkySong.

Hongbin Yu, General Chair

Jim Doyle Technical Program Chair

Everyone was welcomed to the Arizona State University by Bertan Bakkalpglu, ON Semiconductor Professor from School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering.

Presentations will be available to attendees shortly and available to the public in 6 months.
Go to http://pwrsocevents.com/pwrpack-workshop-at-asu/

Key Note Speakers

PwrSoC Workshop – A Perspective of PwrSoC Progress, Cian O'Mathuna, Tyndall National Institute, Ireland

Advanced Packaging Architectures for Heterogeneous Integration, Ravi Mahajan, Intel Fellow, Intel Corporation

Highlights

The Workshop speakers made it clear that integrated packaging is currently directly competitive with traditional integrated solutions when considering cost, performance, and product foot-print area."

Intel in their next generation PC and server development is pursuing both advanced packaging (2.5 D) and Traditional 3D integration tracking Moore's Law.

Some of the Participants

Alex Kalnitsky from TSMC

Jihong Ren from Facebook, Session Co-Chair

Steve Kummerl from Texas Instruments

PwrPACK 2019 Technical Program

Major SOC suppliers including TSMC provided key updates and progress focusing on a fully integrated PwrSoC solution. They used this conference as a platform to introduce major announcements related to integrated silicon capacitors and fully integrated inductors availability on power processes today (no longer science fiction).

The event also provided an opportunity for international collaboration with industry and academia discussing various inductor integration methods and packaging options. Cian O'Mathuna's keynote vision of a billion autonomous sensors clearly showed the opportunity and needs for fully integrated power solutions.

Interest and participation extended beyond traditional PC Board development. By utilizing both packaging and integration is enhancing the power/processor world and becoming more evident across the industry based on tradeoffs between performance area power, and cost (PPAC). Dialog Semiconductor provided an example sharing the work on their 100MHz PSIP PMIC with internal discrete components.

Package integration and device embedding progress is commencing to drive PSiPs to much higher power density levels. Texas Instruments provided examples of that with their MicroSiP™ mm sized devices.

View the full Technical Program at http://pwrsocevents.com/pwrpack-technical-program/

Sessions were followed by active discussions between IC designers, assembly experts and substrate/materials providers bringing innovative solutions to address power delivery in package challenges.

Host:

(National Science Foundation Efficient Vehicle and Sustainable Transportation)

Sponsored by:

Platinum Partner:

Sponsored by PSMA and IEEE PELS
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
October 25 – 28, 2020

he seventh edition of the biennial International Workshop on Power Supply on Chip (PwrSoC) workshop returns to North America on October 25 thru October 28 2020 to be held at the Singh Center for Nanotechnology on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia PA.

PwrSoC is the leading international forum for the discussion of the challenges and opportunities in technology, business and supply chain, intent on advancing the miniaturization and integration of power conversion and power management solutions. The workshop will feature presentation and dialog sessions of advanced technologies with global academic and industry experts aimed at miniaturizing power management solutions through system architecture, circuits and topology, packaging, and passive components. The Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA) and IEEE Power Electronics Society (IEEE PELS) are joint financial and technical sponsors for the  workshop.

Over the last 10 years, the Workshop has been held around the world on three different continents, at locations including Cork, Ireland (2008, 2010), San Francisco, CA (2012), Boston, MA (2014), Madrid, Spain (2016), and Hsinchu, Taiwan (2018).

In 2020, the workshop returns to North America at the Singh Center for Nanotechnology on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA centrally located on the I95 corridor of the US east coast. The PwrSoC 2020 will be chaired by an experienced team with Prof. Mark Allen as the General Chair and Matt Wilkowski and Hanh-Phuc Le as the Technical Program Co-Chairs.

The 2020 PwrSoC Workshop will continue the single-track format so that attendees have access to all the latest developments in systems and integration, active and passive components, system integration, packaging and manufacturing, granular power topologies and control.

The technical presentation sessions will be a combination of lecture style presentations and interactive panel question and answer dialog sessions. These will be complemented by an interactive poster session on a wide range of perspectives from emerging system and application requirements, research initiatives and industry commercialization.

Throughout its history, the PwrSoC workshops have spotlighted advanced technologies to build granular power supplies and compelling demonstrations of commercialized products that make a clear case for PwrSoC (Power Supply On Chip) and PSiP (Power Supply in Package) technologies becoming more prominent and mainstream.

Mark Allen has pointed out "The venue of Singh Center for Nanotechnology on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania offers a unique opportunity to pursue advanced component and device fabrication technologies towards supporting market applications on the horizon being developed elsewhere on campus." Supporting the ambition to identify the solutions that PwrSoC and PSIP technology can contribute towards new applications, there will be an opportunity to tour various labs on the campus of UPENN including the GRASP Lab (robotics, automation, sensing & perception applications), Penn Electric Racing (electric vehicles) in addition to the facilities of the Singh Center for Nanotechnology

A panel session will be introduced this year to explore the circumstances and thresholds to connect technology's emerging trends and developments with market opportunities and associated technology investments.

The planning of the technical program, supporting activities as well as identifying workshop partners to contribute to its success are all in process. If you are interested to be a workshop partner, please contact the workshop treasurer, Trifon Liakopoulos, at the following e-mail address: trifon@enchip.com
With the intention of continuing the tradition of the enthusiasm, market relevance and success of past workshops, we are looking forward to another successful PwrSoC 2020 in Philadelphia, PA.

General Chair:
Dr Mark Allen  mallen@seas.upenn.edu

Technical Program Co-Chairs:
Matt Wilkowski mwilkowski@enachip.com
Prof. Hanh-Phuc Le hanhphuc@ucsd.edu

For more information about previous and coming PwrSoC events, visit http://pwrsocevents.com.

ecause power supplies are a core component within any electronics application, the power industry often has to develop power solutions years before certain applications reach the market. This is a big challenge and to be able to achieve that and to support customers, the power designers not only have to work closely with system and equipment manufacturers, but equally and ongoing, perform business trends analysis to define what power solutions will be required in the coming years in the industrial, medical and other industry sectors.

With a lot of uncertainty in the global economy, trade wars, BREXIT, a lack of qualified operators, 99.99% quality requirements and many others, the transformation of the industrial landscape from conventional to smart is accelerating. In a study published by the Capgemini Digital Transformation Institute, it is  estimated that within the next five years smart factories could add as much as 1.5 trillion USD to the overall industry. This is really significant and if only a portion of that amount is represented by power supplies this  is not a negligible growth. However such advances  will require a lot of technical innovation from power supplies manufacturers to meet customers' expectations.

At a time when some are talking about Industry 5.0 that will focus on the co-operation between man and machine, Industry 4.0 is still at an early stage, though the growing numbers of applications is truly impressive. A lot has been written about Industry 4.0 and intelligent power solutions but since 2015 we have seen other segments such as medical moving forwards to smarter levels of automation and a growing numbers of robotics requiring power supplies meeting both industrial and medical safety approvals.

Small and medium size robotic equipment is becoming more common place across all industries and if we are used to the impressive robots operating in the car or heavy industries, there is a myriad of smaller robots accomplishing complex tasks, assisting people to improve life (e.g. home healthcare robotics helping disabled people in daily tasks) and even helping surgeons in complex operations, some even being performed by remote control miles away from the surgery theater. The surgical robotic segment alone is expected to grow from USD 3.9 billion in 2018 to USD 6.5 billion by 2023, which is only a fraction of the 600,000 robotic units projected in 2023.

Smart factory automation is already well established in many industries, but with the progress in Artificial Intelligence (AI), remote communication and the growing demand for shorter customer lead times, it is predicted to explode in coming years

Powerbox (PRBX) and its parent company COSEL are developing power solutions for demanding industries and in both industrial and medical segments we see a strong demand from systems designers for a new generation of power supplies with lots of built-in functionalities, requests for higher flexibility levels in configuration, and more communication interfaces.

The industrial and medical segments are influenced, at one point or another, by the Internet of Things (IoT), and for connected devices from a few watts to multi-kilowatts. Communications is becoming very important. We are used to CAN Bus or PMBus but in the smart industry, power supplies will become an active part of the machine-to-machine architecture embedding radio communication and using much faster Bus communication that what is currently in practice.

For many it might seem like science fiction but already today, power systems used within the auto industry are able to control and test Lithium-ion battery charging during the car assembly process, operating as an autonomous equipment transferring charging information data to the next work station to continue charging and testing without disruption. All power supplies are communicating via radio transmission, making it possible for auto manufacturers to physically move charging equipment to accommodate ever changing production needs.

Another interesting area is the new generation of small and medium size robots deployed in various industries and the medical sector. The level of integration is impressive, requiring power supplies manufacturers to integrate more features such as IGBT gate drivers with high isolation in addition to normal power channels, without mentioning the flexibility required by designers in terms of output voltage combinations (figure 01).

Figure 01 – COSEL RBC200F triple isolated outputs for small and medium robotic and factory automation

Adding challenges to challenges

Because small and medium size robots are used differently in various industries, robotics equipment manufacturers often require power supplies to comply/certify with industrial standards such as EN62477-1 (OVC III) making it possible to connect the equipment directly to the distribution panel, but also with the new EN62368-1 which was originally created for audio, video and ICT equipment, without forgetting medical standards such as IEC 60601-1 and collateral. Additionally, power designers have to consider a large raft of safety and operational standards, adding yet another level of complexity to an already challenging environment.

Smart industry also means a smart way of organizing factories, with site developers optimizing factory and workshop layouts to increase flexibility and efficiency. Examples include minimizing the main power cabling to equipment, and exchanging Ethernet and other data transmission cabling for ruggedized and secure RF communications.

Industrial RF communications networks will develop to facilitate machine-to-machine communications and although power supplies might not need built-in RF transmission capability, they will need a higher level of interaction with their surroundings compared to now, and as it has been in the auto industry, it could become a must for certain applications.

RF communication is an interesting research area for power designers to explore, and similarly, how power supplies will follow the machine-to-machine evolution.

Smart power to smart factory automation

Smart factory automation is already well established in many industries, but with the progress in Artificial Intelligence (AI), remote communication and the growing demand for shorter customer lead times, it is predicted to explode in coming years. Similarly, the growth of automated parcel-hubs is expected to rise spectacularly. The rapid development of e-commerce has contributed to the creation of highly automated hubs with conveyers, sorting switches and many other equipments requiring efficient and intelligent power solutions able to work in demanding environments.

Parcel hub-designers and hub-operators are facing multiple challenges in having to deal with a large variety and types of equipment. The new generation of parcel hubs are built on a very sophisticated architecture. Instead of having (say) a 100 meter long conveyer belt, the new lines are composed of shorter individual segments five to ten meters long, and turned on and off on demand when a parcel is transported from point A to point B. Each segment is powered by a DC motor requiring the use of an advanced power supply able to not only deliver power but also to meet the complex requirements inherent to the modern parcel hub environment.

Traditionally, below 1000W, DC motors are powered by a single phase AC/DC power supply. Though to simplify installation, reduce unbalanced phase loading and for better optimization of energy from the grid, parcel hub designers now require that all power supplies for DC motors have a three phase input, and for whatever the power level. Also, considering energy saving and reducing peak-loads, hub designers require power supplies to include peak energy control and energy storage, thus able to store energy when motors are decelerating or stopping, but also to deliver high energy levels when DC motors are activated. This is usually achieved by capacitors or supercapacitor banks partly controlled by the microprocessor in charge of the power supply energy management (Figure 02).

Figure 02 – PRBX ENI250A24 designed for high speed e-commerce hubs conveyers with microprocessor controller and energy recycling

The smart power revolution is coming

Those two examples illustrate the changes in demand from systems designers, the levels of innovation required, and the challenges that power supplies manufacturers will face. This is a really exciting time for power designers, not just to think out of the box, but to add more to the box.

Provided by Patrick Le Fèvre Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Powerbox

Editor's Note: Article reproduced with courtesy of Power Electronics News and Powerbox (PRBX)

n this column, we frequently stress the need to plan for compliance requirements—all types including safety, EMC, energy efficiency and environmental/restricted materials—early in the product design cycle or process. We stress the need to know the requirements and to perform pre-compliance testing as you go through the different design stages. But knowing we should do these things, and getting our companies to agree to do them are different things. So often there is resistance from other members of a design team, or other colleagues in the organization, to take the necessary extra steps to ensure that compliance needs are considered throughout product development. How do we overcome this resistance? A paper presented at the recent IEEE EMC + SIPI 2019 conference[1] provides guidance on how compliance advocates can convince their colleagues in engineering and management of the value, or more specifically, the return on investment (ROI) of addressing compliance needs early and throughout the product design process.

Consultant Sanford Rotter and Jerry Meyerhoff from JDM discuss a range of issues in their paper "Effectively Communicating the EMC Message in Design Teams."[2] Among the challenges in getting design team to address EMC compliance needs are conflicts between EMC requirements and other product design criteria, a lack of experience on the part of the new EMC engineer, differing perspectives and motivations among various design team members, an organizational structure that isolates the EMC engineer, and various challenges relating to communications and relationships among team members.

Although, the paper by Rotter and Meyerhoff focuses on EMC requirements, the same issues and solutions apply broadly to safety and other compliance areas. And while the paper is written specifically to assist EMC engineers, it's equally relevant to power supply engineers since the power electronics is subject to many of the safety and compliance requirements in a product. We often operate from the mains power lines and switching power converters generate a great deal of EMI which needs to be managed. In addition, the compliance and regulatory landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace. As we have written in previous columns, it's usually incumbent on the power supply engineers to keep informed of the changing regulations.   

As noted above, the need to address EMC requirements can be at odds with other design criteria. In their paper, Rotter and Meyerhoff mention the difficulty of balancing compliance considerations against product functionality and the ever-present release dates. So, in light of these and other challenges, how does the EMC engineer persuade the rest of the organization including finance people, the business side and other members of the engineering teams to listen, pay attention and most importantly to act at the start of a product development? That's essentially the question that Rotter and Meyerhoff try to answer in their paper. And it's a challenge that's made more difficult by the pressure to accelerate the design as fast as possible towards the NPI (new product introduction) phase.

From the engineer's point of view, it often seems that conveying technical requirements should be a straightforward and rational process. But experience teaches us otherwise. We can sit in meetings all day long and scream from the rafters that common sense and logic—plus good engineering practice dictates that you must consider safety and compliance at the early stages of any project. But the reaction from other team members will likely be a blank stare because the information is not being communicated in the language the rest of the organization speaks.

Most importantly, the message has to be understood and accepted by the part of the organization that actually decides what really happens. In my own experience, I have observed the necessity of justifying engineering decisions to the businesspeople who run tech companies. As a product of engineering education in the 1980s, I came to realize over time that my engineering training was insufficient. By the early 2000s, I realized I needed a business degree to get anything accomplished because I was operating in an environment where terms were dictated by the accounting and finance people.

As an engineer, your warnings about safety and compliance, if not framed properly, will be received as inhibiting progress and interfering with the company's return on investment (ROI). This is a position you don't want to be in. Often an experienced engineer will articulate a clear thoughtful, rational and compelling case of why the present design plan will not meet compliance requirements only to have other parts of the organization or even other design team members not understand and ignore the simple changes. The end result of this failure to make the simple changes early in the design could be the need for a total redesign later, as the authors of the paper observe.

When a project reaches this point of having to start over, for those who advocated the compliance needs, it can difficult to resist the temptation to say, "I told you so". But we are all adults after all, and laying blame or finger pointing doesn't help to build the communications and trust among design team members, which as Rotter and Meyerhoff explain, are essential to effectively conveying the compliance message.

So how do we save our organizations from themselves so that we make safety and compliance top of mind in the early stages of a design? We have all heard, been told, repeated and otherwise discussed the fact that if you take care of regulatory issues upfront early in the design process it's less costly. However, your finance department and management will want you to quantify the cost advantage with demonstrable evidence. In their paper, Rotter and Meyerhoff provide a graph, originally published by Sunpower,[3] that can help you to do so (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. The cost per engineering change is, on average, $3500 per change early in the design cycle, but becomes orders of magnitude more expensive as the product approaches production. So, the ROI of making small design changes for compliance, rather than waiting until after the design is released to manufacturing is clear. Source “Effectively Communicating the EMC Message in Design Teams,” EMC + SIPI 2019 Proceedings,[2] originally attributed to Sunpower.)

In this figure, you can see that when EMC, safety and environmental materials issues are considered early in the design cycle they are much less costly to change. If they are done before release to production, the average cost to change is $3,500 per change event. In fact, this goes for any design change yet for the sake of this discussion we are referring to changes needed to meet safety and compliance requirements.

Use the information in the figure to gain support of senior management and the rest of the design teams early in the process to advocate and gain buy-in for the safety and compliance specifications as part of the marketing requirements documents (MRDs) and as part of the product spec. I would even suggest that you over-communicate the figure graphic with your teams. Doing so will boost your credibility and show the rest of the team members including senior management "WIFY"— what's in it for you. Everyone wants to be part of a successful winning program and project and in today's environment that can only be done when the product passes all necessary regulatory issues and is able to be sold into its intended market while meeting or exceeding the market's and customer's needs.
Getting the compliance requirements incorporated into the MRDs and the product spec is just a beginning. As the product development process continues, you'll need to communicate with your design team the status of conformance as it's just as important as any other attribute of the design. Test and verify conformance to the required standards early and often and emphasize to management and the rest of your team that you cannot launch the product until it meets all the required standards. Penalties for not doing so are more onerous than ever before. Realize that if you can quantify these penalties that may also help you to communicate the ROI of your compliance efforts.

As the authors of the EMC + SIPI paper[2] explain, establishing good communications with other team members is crucial in conveying regulatory requirements. Establishing a dialogue to define the needed standards and communicating them on a routine basis during the full course of the product development process is critical to a successful NPI. I have seen too many cases where the requirements "can" gets kicked down the road for the sake of product expediency or engineering is over-ruled by a "driver" type A personality somewhere in the organization. This is often someone on the business side trying to meet their metrics only to discover later they cannot launch the product on-time due to non-conformance. Then delays and expenses mount.

Ultimately, you should know going into the final compliance tests that you are going to pass based on the pre-compliance work that has been done all during product development for safety, EMI-EMC and materials–environmental global compliance. Missing a new product launch window is a big price to pay for not paying attention to the three areas of product safety and compliance that permit your product to be shipped anywhere in the world.

I would recommend that you review the paper by Rotter and Meyerhoff as well as the rest of the papers and presentations from the IEEE EMC+SIPI 2019 conference. These materials are available for free to IEEE EMC society members[4]. If you are not already a member, you can join and instantly have access to all the papers.[5]

While EMC may not be your main focus, if you are working in power electronics, EMC requirements are for the most part unavoidable. Finding practical, timely information on EMC requirements and how to meet them is not trivial. Whatever problems you're encountering in addressing your EMC needs, chances are the EMI and EMC experts who participate in the IEEE EMC + SIPI conference have faced these issues before and are dealing with any new challenges that are coming along. Consequently, the EMC + SIPI proceedings are a great source of useful information for those in the power electronics field.

1. IEEE EMC + SIPI 2019 conference.
   
2. "Effectively Communicating the EMC Message in Design Teams" by Sanford Rotter and Jerry Meyerhoff, IEEE EMC + SIPI 2019, available online to IEEE EMC society members.
   
3. Sunpower Electronics.
   
4. IEEE EMC+SIPI Conference proceedings.
   
5. IEEE memberships and subscriptions catalog.
   

Kevin Parmenter Director of Applications Engineering Taiwan Semiconductor America

Jim Spangler President Spangler Prototype Inc. (SPI)

Editor's Note: This article was first published in the September 2019 issue of How2Power Today (http://www.how2power.com/newsletters/index.php).

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