APEC

he 2020 PSMA Planning Meeting originally scheduled to be held face-to-face in Phoenix, AZ in conjunction with the APEC Program Planning Meeting was changed to a virtual format due to the Covid-19 pandemic and travel restrictions. The PSMA Planning Meeting addresses the future direction of the organization and focuses on the major issues in the industry.  The objective is to identify programs for the next year that will continue to bring benefits to the membership. While it was disappointing not to be able to see everyone in person, the online format did create the opportunity for a strong showing of over 40 attendees.

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:

• Keep the good stuff
• Become more applications and problems oriented 
• Define and integrate metrics to monitor the parameters that matter
• Engage more with stakeholders

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
Tim McDonald, Secretary/Treasurer, presented the 6-Quarter financial forecast for October 2020 – March 2022.  The financial forecast recognizes the negative impact of cancellation of the in-person APEC2020 and recognizes the challenges facing APEC2021.

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
Trifon Liakopoulos, PSMA Vice-President, discussed the work being planned to identify the KPIs – Key Performance Indicators - that are actionable and critical to the success of achieving the goals of the organization. The KPIs will be used to track and improve the activities of the Technical Committees, the effectiveness of the website, workshops, special projects and webinars as well as success in attracting new membership.

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
There was a report from each of the PSMA committees that summarized their accomplishments over the past year and focused on ongoing programs and projects for 2021. Nine of the committees have submitted proposals to organize Industry Sessions at APEC 2021 and all technical committees are supporting the 2022 Power Technology Roadmap effort. The committee reports each included information on how their activities align with the Four Pillars and strategic focus on IoT, smart mobility and storage.

In addition:

• Fred Weber, Capacitor Committee Co-Chair, reported the committee meets monthly with 10- 12 people attending. Wilmer Companioni is responsible for organizing the Industry Sessions, Pierre Lohrber is responsible for the annual Workshops, and Fred Weber for Webinars. The committee has sponsored a number of webinars in 2020, including the Capacitor Basics Series and for the Workshop and Industry Session planned for APEC2020. They gather feedback from attendees through surveys after each event. Recently the committee, in cooperation with the Energy Management Committee, supported the formation of an Energy Storage Subcommittee.
• Energy Storage Subcommittee Co-Chair Edward Schneider briefly reviewed the formation of the subcommittee. In addition to organizing an Industry Session for APEC 2021, the subcommittee is working with other PSMA Technical Committees to expand collaboration on the effort.
• Energy Harvesting Committee Co-Chair Brian Zahnstecher reported that the committee continues to grow, with almost 50 people on the distribution list and 15 active members. The committee is planning a presentation on IoT at IPC APEX 2021. A White Paper subcommittee has been formed and meets bi-weekly with a target to publish in early 2021. EnerHarv 2020 was postponed due to COVID-19; planning for the next workshop will resume in the coming months.
• David Chen and Edward Herbert, Energy Management Committee Co-Chairs, reported that there are 24 people on the distribution list for the committee with 8 active members that participate in monthly meetings. The committee has increased collaboration with other committees and together with the Capacitor Committee, supports the Energy Storage sub-committee. The presentation included a brief review of the statistics for both the Energy Efficiency Data Base and the Safety and Compliance Data Base.
• John Horzepa reported while the Industry-Education Committee continues to support the student attendance program, the committee could not meet as planned at APEC2020 to continue the efforts to address a number of proposed initiatives to provide additional programs to encourage students to learn about and pursue a career in power electronics. He will be organizing a committee teleconference in the coming months and encouraged everyone at the meeting interested in contributing to efforts to support students who are the future Power Electronics professionals to contact the PSMA office.
• Magnetics Committee Co-Chairs George Slama and Ed Herbert reported that the committee is planning its fifth annual workshop at APEC 2021. The committee continues to collaborate with the Capacitor committee on the demonstration presentations for the workshops. Early this year, the committee presented 2 Magnetics Basics webinars and plans additional future webinars. The committee also recently completed the Phase II Core Loss Special Project, and the report is available to members on the PSMA website.
• Frank Cirolia and Greg Evans, Marketing Committee Co-Chairs, reviewed recent activities of the committee. For the first time, the committee is organizing an Industry Session at APEC 2021 focused on Market Trends. The committee does not plan to sponsor the PSMA/APEC Passport Program at APEC2021 but will reconsider for future events. The committee had been planning programs to celebrate PSMA turning 35 and the announcement of the Chuck Mullett Lifetime Achievement Award at APEC 2020 and are looking ahead to opportunities to promote these at APEC 2021.
• Brian Narveson and John Bultitude, Packaging Committee Co-Chairs, reported the committee has been very active in the past year. Because of the impact of Covid19, all of the planned events for 2020 have been postponed and are being rescheduled for 2021. A PwrSoC Corridor 3 Session Webinar Series is scheduled for November 2020. Projects for 2021 include IWIPP in Aalborg Denmark in April, the rescheduling of 3D-PEIM Symposium in Osaka and PwrSoC Workshop at the University of Pennsylvania.
• Power Technology Roadmap Committee Co-Chairs Dhaval Dalal and Conor Quinn reported that due to the impact of Covid19, the next Roadmap will be delayed for one year and is now planned for 2022. The committee continues to identify volunteers to be co-chairs for select technology segments and will be holding meetings in the coming months to coordinate the content and format for the 2022 Roadmap.  The committee is encouraging the PSMA Technical Committees to identify topics and presenters for the PTR Webinar series.
• Reliability Committee Chair Brian Zahnstecher reported that the committee is looking for a co-chair to replace Tony O'Brien who recently retired. The Power Supply Communication Bus Reliability Special Project begun in late 2019 has been delayed and is being rescheduled. In addition, the committee is working with IEEE PELS to co-sponsor activities and is looking to attract more membership and contributions from Academia, National Labs and Users.
• John Horzepa reported that the Safety and Compliance Committee continues to seek volunteers to serve as co-Chairs and requested the group to suggest individuals from their organization that may be interested in contributing to the work of the committee. He plans to organize a committee meeting in the coming months. The committee continues to support and expand the Safety and Compliance Data Base on the PSMA website which is available to all PSMA members as well as to individuals in the power sources industry.
• Semiconductor Committee Co-Chairs Tirthajyoti Sarkar and Tim McDonald welcomed Reenu Garg as the committee's newest co-chair and reported that the Semiconductor Committee is very active with 5 to 10 members participating in the monthly meeting each month. The Committee had organized 4 industry sessions at APEC 2020 and were able to convert several of these presentations into webinars to support the 2022PTR. The committee is also considering creating a virtual tutorial for the industry.
• Ralph Taylor and Fred Weber, Transportation Electronics Committee Co-Chairs reported that committee is very active with 6-12 attendees at the monthly meetings. The committee has changed its name from Transportation Power Electronics to Transportation Electronics in order to include Autonomous Vehicle Technology. The committee continues to seek additional members from the Automotive industry segment and continues interaction with National Labs and other organizations involved with R&D projects in support of vehicle and transportation technologies.

Planning Exercise
There was a short break after the Committee Reports, and when the meeting reconvened, Fred Weber, PSMA President, led the planning exercise, introducing the "Power of the Pillars". During the first half of the meeting, he tracked the ideas brought up in the reports and split them into quick "Tiger Team" actions and long-term strategic issues. He opened the brainstorming session by reviewing the Four Pillars (Build on Strengths, Become more Applications Oriented, Integrate Metrics, Engage with Stakeholders) and inviting everyone at the meeting to suggest ideas for the coming year.

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:

• Increasing Collaboration with iNEMI, IPC and other organizations
• Expanding relationship with PELS
• Refocus of the structure and content of the Power Technology Roadmap
• Focus on Autonomous vehicles and Smart mobility
• Focus on Storage technologies
• Increasing collaboration between Technical Committees

Summary and Close
Fred Weber thanked the attendees for their inputs and participation. PSMA members can view the minutes from the Planning Meeting in the Members Only section of the PSMA web site.

Outgoing Chair Stephen Oliver

Incoming Chair Mike Hayes

he PSMA Annual Meeting, originally scheduled to be held in New Orleans, was changed to a virtual meeting due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the cancellation of the in-person APEC. Almost 60 PSMA members and guests attended the meeting.

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.

Tony O’Brien, Reliability Committee Co-Chair

Brian Zahnstecher, Reliability Committee Co-Chair

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:

• Keeping and Nurturing the Good Stuff,
• Becoming more Applications and Problems oriented,
• Define and integrate metrics to monitor the parameters that matter,
• Engage more with stakeholders,
• Sustenance and Smart Growth.

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.

• Fred Weber, Capacitor Committee Co-Chair, reported that the committee is planning an educational webinar on the process of choosing a capacitor, using datasheets and comparing benefits vs. drawbacks. This will be the fourth webinar in the Capacitor Basics series. The first 3 webinars are available on the Educational Resources section of the Capacitor Committee Forum on the PSMA website. The committee organized its Third Annual Workshop and plans to offer the Workshop in virtual form in the coming weeks.
• Mike Hayes and Brian Zahnstecher, Energy Harvesting Committee Co-Chairs, reported that the committee membership is approaching 50 members with 10 to 15 attendees at their meetings each month. Some of the initiatives they are considering for 2020 include generating a white paper and supporting a student design contest. The EnerHarv 2020 Workshop scheduled for NSCU Assist Center in Raleigh in mid-June has been canceled due to COVID19 and will be rescheduled.
• David Chen and Ed Herbert, Energy Management Committee Co-Chairs, reported the committee is considering a number of topics for educational and Roadmap webinars including an update on rules and requirements for energy labelling and ecodesign in EU, strategies to meet or beat regulatory requirements, life-cycle analysis, modeling carbon savings as related to the grid and energy storage technologies. The committee continues to support the efforts to update the Energy Efficiency Database. Arnold Alderman provided a brief update on the current status of the EEDB.
• Mike Hayes reviewed the objectives of the Industry-Education Committee which are to promote interaction between power electronics students and industry and to promote power electronics to university and pre-university students. The committee held an in-person meeting in October 2019 in conjunction with the PSMA Planning Meeting and is looking to increase the committee activities and initiatives. Ideas being considered included mentorship opportunities, competitions, videos, and webinars. The committee is also interested in partnering with and championing projects with other PSMA committees and outside organizations. Anyone interested in joining this effort to encourage and support students, the future of the power electronics industry, was encouraged to contact PSMA at power@psma.com.
• Steve Carlsen and Ed Herbert, Magnetics Committee Co-Chairs, reported that the committee has been sponsoring two special projects during the past year. The PSMA-SMA Core Loss Studies - Phase II project report is complete and available to members on the PSMA website. The committee also sponsored 2 webinars in early 2020 on the Basics of Magnetics for Switching Power. Under the leadership of Matt Wilkowski and Ed Herbert, the committee, with technical support from IEEE PELS, organized the 5th Power Magnetics @ High Frequency Workshop and plans to offer the Workshop in virtual form in the coming weeks.
• Frank Cirolia and Greg Evans, Marketing Committee Co-Chairs, provided an overview of the committee and highlighted some of the activities on its current agenda. A new Membership Brochure was created and is now available. They are also looking at the best way to proceed with updating the Handbook of Standardized Terminology. The committee has been involved with many of the recent and current Tiger Team initiatives including the selection of a new PSMA logo and providing feedback for the PSMA web site now in development.
• Power Packaging and Manufacturing Committee Co-Chairs, Brian Narveson and Ernie Parker, reviewed the activities and results of the committee this past year. There are over 20 people on the committee, with a good cross-section of industry and academia. The committee is very active, supporting 3 upcoming workshops 3D-PEIM in Osaka, Japan, IWIPP in Aalborg, Denmark, and PwrSoC in Philadelphia, PA, USA.
• Dhaval Dalal and Conor Quinn, Power Technology Roadmap Committee Co-Chairs, reported that the committee has just begun the planning for the 2021 Power Technology Roadmap and presented a timeline for the activities leading up to the final report. They are looking to fill a couple of vacant segment co-chair positions and soliciting contributions from PSMA committees for the 2020 webinar series.
• Tony O'Brien and Brian Zahnstecher, Reliability Committee Co-Chairs, reported that the committee which was formed in 2017 has monthly meetings and has 29 members. The initial focus of the committee was to sponsor a Special Project. The project has been completed and the PSMA Power Supply Software/Firmware Reliability Improvement Report was distributed to the membership. Work has recently begun on a new special project, the Power Supply Communication Bus Reliability Initiative and they are targeting late 2020 for the publication of the project report. 
• Mike Hayes reported that the Safety & Compliance Committee has become inactive and is looking for new leadership. Anyone interested in helping to reactivate the committee was encouraged to contact the PSMA office at power@psma.com. Arnold Alderman, provided a brief update of the current status of the Safety and Compliance Database on the PSMA website. Former committee co-chairs, Kevin Parmenter and Jim Spangler, have also continued to provide monthly articles on Safety and Compliance issues to How 2 Power.
• Tim McDonald and Tirtha Sarkar, Co-Chairs of the Semiconductor Committee, reported the committee has been very active this past year and organized four Industry Sessions for APEC2020 that included a total of 19 high quality presentations. The committee is considering organizing a number of virtual Industry Sessions to present the material prepared. The committee considered a Special Project during 2019 and continues to look for project sponsoring opportunities. They supported the successful WiPDA 2019 and are involved in the preparations for WiPDA 2020.
• Ralph Taylor and Fred Weber, Transportation Power Electronics Committee Co-Chairs, reported the committee has been very active this past year. One of the committee's main focusses has been how to leverage the information learned from the 2019 special project to address the current awareness of APEC and PSMA within the Automobile Industry and make recommendations to attract companies in that industry to participate in PSMA events.

Invited speaker Marc Benowitz, iNEMI

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.