APEC
APEC 2021 is on schedule for early June in Phoenix. It is a great time to be in Arizona. Yes, it's warm (maybe even hot) during the day but the evenings are cool and clear. The Phoenix Convention Center is a comfortable, climate-controlled facility where the technical sessions, industry sessions, professional education seminars and exhibits will all take place.
With the very encouraging news about the wide availability of multiple approved Covid-19 vaccines by early Spring, we expect the in-person event to be a lively and well-attended affair. Getting to Phoenix will very likely also be a bargain. Off-season travel to Phoenix is typically less expensive – airfares are lower, hotel rates are reduced.
Many companies are still restricting travel for employees but as we - globally - move out from under the cloud of this pandemic, this will surely change.
So just imagine getting back to APEC – meeting with industry colleagues, enhancing your knowledge about cutting edge technologies and applications, learning about the latest products and joining in-person, face-to-face meetings and social events.
PSMA and PELS will again be sponsoring two workshops, the sixth High Frequency Magnetics Workshop and the fourth Capacitor Workshop. For more information see the articles on each workshop in this issue of the UPDATE.
So, if you haven't already done so, put APEC 2021, from Wednesday June 9th through Saturday June 12th on your planning calendar. Let's make APEC 2021 the coolest event of the year.
Please visit the APEC website https://apec-conf.org/ for additional information and updates.
Provided by Greg Evans, APEC 2021 Publicity Chair |
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PSMA President Fred Weber welcomed all attendees and reviewed the mission of the Association and presented the Chair's report on behalf of PSMA Chair Mike Hayes who was unable to attend. He discussed the Executive Committee's Vision for 2020-2025, including the Four Pillars for sustenance and smart growth:
The 2020-2022 Executive Committee has been very active, holding regular meetings about every 2 weeks. The committee roles have been better defined and expanded, with each Officer championing one of the Four Pillars. They continue to work with the PSMA Office to make sure that activities are aligned with the vision and strategy. A new feature "Message from the PSMA Executive Committee", was added to the newsletter earlier this year, and each quarter one of the Executive Committee members will give a brief update and a more detailed insight into some of their activities. Fred Weber summarized the general health and status of the organization and recognized the outstanding contributions by the Technical Committees. There have been renewed efforts to increase the relationships and cooperation with other key industry organizations – most notably with IPC, iNEMI.and CPSS. Finally, he reviewed the vision to build on the 4 Pillars with strategic focus on IoT, smart mobility and storage. Financial Forecast In summary, the forecast projects that the near term will be a challenging time for PSMA. The forecast assumes member dues income and modest revenues from planned workshops and symposia in the coming year as well as the continuation of some of the current and ongoing special projects that promise to bring value to the membership and the industry. To maintain a positive financial position during the pandemic and recovery, PSMA will need to control costs and look for revenue opportunities in the interim. KPIs-Metrics that Matter This is a work in process with the initial focus to identify and plan for the infrastructure (people, web management and responsibilities) that will enable us to gather the information to improve the performance and effectiveness of the organization.
Committee Updates In addition:
Planning Exercise Building on the plans of the Technical Committees and the focus of the Executive Committee, and incorporating the ideas and suggestions from the brainstorming session, he compiled the following as the major activities for the coming year:
Summary and Close |
This is the first time APEC is scheduled to take place in the Grand Canyon State, in Phoenix, AZ. The committee is hard at work organizing an in-person event, while also planning for any eventualities. Despite the current climate, there has been a positive response from companies planning to exhibit at APEC 2021. And the number of submissions for Technical Paper, Industry Sessions and Professional Education seminars has been very encouraging. PSMA and PELS will again be sponsoring two workshops, the sixth High Frequency Magnetics Workshop and the fourth Capacitor Workshop. For more information see the articles on each workshop in this issue of the UPDATE. Please visit the APEC website https://apec-conf.org/ for additional information and updates.
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Outgoing Chair Stephen Oliver opened the meeting at 10 a.m. CDT. He welcomed all attendees and introduced Mike Hayes who was elected Chair by the Board of Directors at the February Board meeting. Mike Hayes introduced the Executive Team that will serve 2020 -2022:
Next on the agenda was the election of four people to the Board of Directors. Each candidate introduced themselves and provided a brief summary of their background and reasons for wanting to serve on the board. The following candidates were elected to the Board of Directors for the three-year term (2020-2023):
Mike Hayes congratulated the four Directors, all elected to serve their second terms. Mike then presented awards to Tony O'Brien and Brian Zahnstecher, Co-Chairs of the Reliability Committee, for their leadership of PSMA's newest committee, formed in 2017, and publication of the 2019 PSMA Power Supply Software/Firmware Reliability Improvement Project and Report.
Jose Cobos, General Chair for APEC 2020, reviewed the background and decision by the committee with the three sponsors to cancel the in-person APEC2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. He also briefly identified some of the major and outstanding issues with the convention center, the many vendors, exhibitors and individual registrants that were being addressed. The Steering Committee is considering the possibility of organizing a Virtual APEC program that would include presentations of the Plenary Session, accepted Technical Papers, planned Seminars and selected Industry Sessions, but the details have not yet been worked out. APEC2021 is scheduled March 21-25 in the Phoenix Convention Center but detailed planning has been delayed as the Organizing Committee addresses the outstanding issues with APEC2020. Mike Hayes, Chair, discussed the mission of the Association, the current status of the membership, the immediate concerns in scheduling and being able to hold a number of workshops scheduled for 2020 and other challenges facing the Association. Mike briefly reviewed and discussed his vision and objectives for the next two years including:
Mike then presented an overview of the background and objectives of the PSMA Tiger Teams, small ad hoc groups formed to resolve short and very targeted initiatives that can be addressed quickly. He reviewed a list of completed and ongoing projects recently addressed. Among completed projects include a comprehensive Privacy Policy, a Workshop Support Policy, the new PSMA logo and consolidation of Active Technical Committees. Ongoing Tiger Team projects include an updated website and improving the Public Image. Secretary/ Treasurer Tim McDonald presented the Financial Report including PSMA's current financial status and a six-quarter financial forecast. Tim highlighted that the forecast is based on the best-known data at this point in time but that there are a lot of additional uncertainties in the post COVID-19 world. Each of the PSMA Committees provided updates on the recent activities. All of the committees support the 2021 Power Technology Roadmap, and most are planning to provide at least one webinar to the roadmap webinar series. The committees all had face-to-face meetings planned during APEC and will be rescheduling these meetings by webconference in the coming weeks.
The invited speaker at this year's Annual Meeting was Marc Benowitz, CEO of iNEMI, the International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative, which is a nonprofit R&D consortium of approximately 80 leading electronics manufacturers' suppliers, associations, government agencies and universities. He reviewed the organization, their roadmap, current projects and projects planned for the next few years. Marc also suggested some possible areas that PSMA and iNEMI might consider collaborating on in the near and longer term. The PSMA Power Technology Report Technical Committee discussed that there has been cooperation with the iNEMI Roadmap team over the past several years and each has made contributions to their respective Roadmaps. Mike Hayes and Marc Benowitz agreed that the two Associations will work to increase the relationship and identify areas of mutual benefits. Before adjourning, Chair Mike Hayes asked the attendees for their comments and input on the Annual Meeting as a virtual meeting. The response to the virtual meeting was very positive and the number of PSMA members in attendance was comparable to previous in person meetings. Mike Hayes thanked all presenters and attendees for their participation. The minutes from the PSMA Annual Meeting have been posted in the Members Only area of the PSMA web site together with the charts from the presentations. |
APEC is truly an International Conference. 1212 Technical Session abstracts, received from 45 different nations, were peer reviewed last fall. Abstracts from 30 of these countries were selected for inclusion in this year’s record setting event. Case in point, engineers traveled from as far away as Australia and New Zealand to share their latest design concepts. Speakers from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan represented Asia. Representing South and Central America, speakers travel from Brazil and Columbia. From the Middle East there were presentations from Egypt, Israel, and Qatar. Representing Europe were speakers from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, German, India, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and the Ukraine. Let me not overlook the speakers from Canada, Ireland and the U.K.
And what was happening with the PSMA you might ask? A lot. There were 24 two to three hour technical committee meetings scheduled, ranging from a workshop on High Frequency Magnetics that started at 7:30 on Saturday morning to a three-hour session addressing Safety and Compliance issues and another three-hour session on Semiconductors advances that were held on Thursday. I would be remiss not to point out that the very popular Power Technology Roadmap Committee met for two hours on Tuesday. We did look into the Packaging Technical Committee meeting on Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday evening attendees could select from three desirable Rap sessions including: Future of Semiconductor Technology Development, Power Electronics for Internet of Things: Will it Happen and Advanced Refueling Technologies for EVs. In quizzing some of the attendees we were told that the new hot item is Gallium Nitride semiconductors. Another area to be aware of is IoT. "Internet of things" where you will be told when you are running low on milk, your coffee is ready and other smart power alerts. "The Internet of Things” is the network of physical objects—devices, vehicles, buildings and other items—embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity that enables these objects to collect and exchange data."
Where is everyone from my past? We did find representatives from firms dating back to the 70s and 80s. Many of the others have merged, sold outright or folded in a very competitive environment. The APEC 2017 conference will be held in Tampa from March 26-30. If you wish to submit a paper for consideration in the Technical Sessions or be a Trade Show exhibitor simply check the PSMA website for details.
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