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Commentary The How2Power Today newsletter periodically publishes articles discussing technical, application and business trends, developments, challenges and solutions in power electronics and its applications. These commentary articles address a wide range of topics and are written by engineers and executives representing a wide range of industry perspectives. Though not offering instruction in the manner of How2Power Today’s Design Articles, these commentaries are similarly practical in their approach and often highly technical too. If have questions about any of the articles in this section or if you’re interested in writing a commentary for How2Power Today, contact the editor. 
Transitioning Voltage Regulator Design From Unidirectional To Bidirectional Energy management systems (EMSs) are an emerging set of applications aimed at optimizing the energy flow and storage between electric vehicles, photovoltaic systems, home storage batteries and the electric grid. Such flexible energy management requires that fundamental blocks like voltage regulators and chargers, connected to the EMSs, operate bidirectionally with respect to the energy flow. However, the vast majority of today’s blocks power traditional unidirectional loads. A designer that has thus far designed only unidirectional dc-dc converters will find himself/herself in a quite unchartered territory when asked to design an eminently bidirectional phase-shift dual active bridge (DAB) converter. Hence, designers looking to do their first bidirectional converter designs may benefit from some background on how these relate to conventional, unidirectional power converters. Read the full article…
As Foundry Business Grows, Semiconductor M&A Activity Slows Seven years ago, I wrote an article discussing the merger mania occurring in the semiconductor industry. At the time, I saw companies in the semiconductor industry falling into five categories: acquirers or hunters, acquirees or targets, zombies, apple dumplings and super-specialized technologists. My goal in classifying companies in this way was to explain how the various corporate identities influenced how they acted in various aspects of their businesses. In this article, I reassess the state of the semiconductor industry, discuss how various market forces have changed the industry since 2016, note the major M&A deals that have occurred, and look at the emergence of foundries and OEMs as competitors to traditional semiconductor companies. Read the full article…
Powering Artificial Intelligence In Space With predictable Moore’s-Law-type evolution, the sophistication of electronics in space is increasing. However, it is still quite expensive to transfer data to a satellite from Earth and back again, so it makes sense to do as much processing as possible locally in orbit. Using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), it is now possible to implement algorithmic tools in space that were inconceivable 20 years ago. In this article, the author discusses the possible applications for AI and ML in satellites, the challenges of powering the associated hardware, and the benefits of rad-tolerant resonant power modules in these applications. Read the full article…
Electric Vehicles And Renewable Energy Drive Power Converters Toward Modularity, Higher Power And New Functionality Power converters such as rectifiers (ac-dc), inverters (dc-ac), and dc-dc converters are unavoidable parts in today’s society, being utilized in many applications. In this article, we’ll examine the application and market trends that will be driving the growth of the power converter market in the years ahead. The focus here is mainly on the automotive and industrial segments, particularly the electric vehicle (EV) and EV charger applications and the renewable energy applications in solar, wind, and energy storage. As part of this discussion, we’ll examine how rising voltage and power levels in these applications are affecting power converter developments. Read the full article…
Extending The Benefits Of Remote Centralized LED Drivers From Indoor Horticulture To Commercial And Industrial Lighting Removing the power supply or driver from the LED light fixture in indoor farming offers reductions in both capital and operating expenditures through simplified installation of the lighting systems, energy savings and improved system reliability and uptime. Locating the driver at a remote location away from the growing area also reduces unwanted heat to the plants. The remote centralized driver approach can offer similar benefits in other commercial and industrial applications. This article begins by discussing the use of remote centralized drivers in indoor horticulture. Then it examines how the advantages of these drivers are also relevant in commercial and industrial lighting systems such as those used in box stores and factories, and other indoor and outdoor lighting applications. Read the full article…
Designing High-Performance, Robust Power Supplies For 5G And Outdoor Edge Computing One of the most challenging applications for which engineers must design a PSU is the 5G and edge computing ecosystem. The PSU must be efficient and compact but also suitable for mounting close to telecom equipment on a pole or wall and operate robustly in a diverse range of harsh outdoor environmental conditions. This article will explore key trends in 5G and edge computing applications and the design challenges these trends introduce. It will then introduce an architecture for a compact and efficient ac-dc power supply for 5G and edge computing in outdoor applications. Finally, the article presents an implementation example illustrating how engineers can successfully address each of the design challenges using the proposed architecture. Read the full article…
Variable-Speed Motor Drives Reap Benefits Of Integrated GaN Modern variable-speed drives (VSDs) for electric motors are at the heart of applications ranging from consumer appliances and HVAC to industrial automation, robotics, and electric vehicles. These applications typically use three half bridges to create a three-phase topology. Most motor drives in mass production today are low-frequency (~6 kHz) and hard-switched with silicon IGBTs or FETs. Initial thinking was that the lower frequency of motor-drive operation makes it hard to gain significant benefits from deploying GaN. However, when replacing silicon with integrated GaN half-bridge power ICs, performance improvements are realized. In this article we consider the benefits of GaN versus silicon in VSD applications and the latest technologies that are simplifying the implementation of GaN-based half-bridge designs. Read the full article…
Make Vs. Buy: OEMs Now Have A Choice For Semiconductors A number of years ago I authored an article about the make-vs-buy decision design engineers face in obtaining power supplies for their projects. With large OEMs now having the engineering talent and design tools to create their own ICs, and have them fabricated by foundry companies, make or buy is now a relevant question for semiconductors too. This article looks not so much at the issue of how companies determine whether to make or buy their semiconductors, but rather how trends in the industry are pushing them toward the “make” decision. Read the full article…
Meeting The Challenges Of USB-PD Extended Power Range With An Asymmetrical Half-Bridge Flyback Topology The new USB-PD Extended Power Range (EPR) standard is designed to enable a universal power supply capable of charging a wide range of devices. However, supporting a variable output voltage from 5 V to 48 V at up to 5 A while maintaining high conversion efficiency raises new challenges for engineers. Further complications arise from the need to also maintain a small footprint, accept a wide input voltage range, provide power factor correction, support standby power modes, and dissipate heat only through passive cooling. This article describes how a hybrid flyback topology meets the requirements of the USB-PD EPR standard while achieving high efficiency and high power density. Read the full article…
New JEDEC Guidelines Help Designers To Realistically Predict Stability Of SiC MOSFETs In Applications With the recent publication of JEDEC guidelines for SiC MOSFETs, the promised benefits of SiC MOSFETs can now be fully realized and consistently demonstrated through recognized industry guidelines. Concurrently, newly introduced high-voltage (1200-V) SiC MOSFETs have improved threshold voltage stability that can be validated by the new testing procedure. Systems engineers that have previously evaluated SiC MOSFETs and observed somewhat different threshold voltage (VTH) variations compared to silicon MOSFETs now have an answer on how to measure VTH reproducibly in pristine devices and what is the worst-case drift of critical electrical parameters that can be expected in different SiC MOSFET applications. This article will provide background on the SiC market, discuss the JEDEC guidelines and testing performed by Infineon and conclude with details on newly implemented test procedures. Read the full article…
Power Electronics Moves Forward With New Tools Steve Sandler, DesignCon’s latest Engineer of the Year award winner, has been involved with power-system engineering for over 40 years. Steve helps engineers around the world to architect, design, troubleshoot and optimize advanced power-delivery networks. In his prominent position, he’s exposed to some of the world’s toughest design challenges. I recently spoke with Steve about the ways in which power supply design has changed in recent years and how it may continue to evolve in the future. Steve shared his thoughts on why design tools such as ADS and SPICE are changing, the roles of hard switching versus resonant and quasi-resonant topologies in modern applications, and the design challenges that lie ahead for him and the industry at large. Read the full article…
Increasing The Power Density Of DC Chargers Using GaN HEMT Devices The requirement to charge e-bikes and increasingly powerful portable computers or other mobile devices is driving the demand for higher power levels in USB-C chargers from 65 W to 240 W. At this level, there are some challenges such as the power factor correction (PFC) achieving sufficient power density, and voltage regulation over a wide voltage range. Simultaneously, automobile manufacturers are looking for ways to boost the power density of onboard chargers (OBCs) to help reduce the size and weight of electric vehicles. Infineon set out to investigate the capabilities of GaN HEMTs in order to determine if they could deliver the level of power density required in next-generation charging applications. In this article we discuss their approach and findings. Read the full article…
Empowering High-Voltage AC Applications With Monolithic GaN Bidirectional Switches We don't think of the switches we use in our everyday lives as having a direction: a light switch turns the light on or off, even though it is powered by alternating current (ac). But in the world of semiconductors, most switches are not bidirectional, and this makes many forms of circuitry more complex than they would be if cost-effective bidirectional switches (BDSs) were available. So that’s what we’re working on at Infineon. Read the full article…
Building Better Power Supplies For 5G Base Stations Demand for mobile data is growing 40% year over year, according to Ofcom, the UK’s telecoms regulator. Ofcom says that servicing this demand will involve releasing more spectrum, especially in millimeter wavebands, making efficient use of all the available mobile spectrum, and building additional cell sites. This last item will be particularly important when millimeter-wave spectrum becomes available, since it can deliver a lot of bandwidth, but only over relatively short distances compared to base stations operating at less than 6 GHz. In this commentary, the authors discuss the impact of 5G base station requirements on power supply requirements and how Infineon is responding to these needs. Read the full article…
Improving The Reliability Of Silicon Carbide Power Devices Silicon carbide (SiC) devices offer many advantages, especially in power-conversion circuits for applications where efficiency is at a premium. These include solar inverters and electric vehicles, which may also be expected to remain in service for decades. For these applications, a combination of very high efficiency and long-term reliability is essential. The challenge in deploying SiC in such applications is that the technology is at an earlier stage of development than silicon. This means that the best ways of deploying SiC are still being explored, and that some failure modes unique to SiC devices still need to be better understood and more effectively mitigated. Infineon has been working on these issues for years and so has the insights and experience necessary to both help customers deploy SiC devices to their advantage, and to understand and mitigate their failure mechanisms to ensure the necessary reliability. Read the full article…
GaN Is Revolutionizing Motor Drive Applications In last month’s Safety & Compliance column, “WBG Semiconductors Pose Safety And EMI Challenges In Motor Drive Applications,” Kevin Parmenter made some assertions about the difficulties of using SiC, and to a lesser extent GaN, power semiconductors in large motor-drive applications. This commentary is a response to that article, showing that GaN can be a game changer in low-voltage integrated motors. Read the full article…
My 50 Years In Power Electronics In this commentary, the author reflects on his journeys in the power electronics field from his early days as a student at Belgrade University to his PhD studies at Caltech and the invention of his namesake converter. He relates his philosophy of topologies, magnetics and control first (before switching devices) and his epiphany of what’s holding back further progress in the power electronics field. Finally, the author highlights his new switching methods and topologies, which he will be explaining in his upcoming Masterclass. Read the full article…
Lightning And The Thunder: Smart Meter Upgrade Results In Small Miracle It’s a catchy song, “Thunder,” delivered full force by the wailing pipes of Dan Reynolds and his band Imagine Dragons. Feels great loud. Gets you going. And for me there’s a much deeper tie to the “Lighting and the Thunder” lyric. I’ve been traveling a bit lately. Coming home is truly the best. But on this last trip, I came home to a “smart meter upgrade” truck in my driveway. The gent had the proper ID and a ton of safety equipment—full 40 cal/cm2 arc flash suit, Class II gloves and protectors, and a full visor. And the stuff was all new and clean like it had seen little use, perhaps fresh out of the training room after the two-hour seminar. And the Lightning and the Thunder wasn’t far behind him. Read the full article…
Wearables Require A New Approach To Power Management When we talk about the IoT, we usually think of the surge of billions of connected devices flooding the market today and in the coming years: wearables that monitor your health and fitness levels, speakers that play songs on voice command and previously offline devices like cars, thermostats and lightbulbs that have suddenly become “smart” and given online functionality. But, what we don’t talk about when we talk about the IoT—or at least, what we don’t talk about nearly enough —is how we’re powering all of these devices. After all, billions of new devices—estimated to total over 20 billion by 2020—launching billions of new online connections also means even greater energy consumption. How is the power management space changing in order to accommodate this brave new IoT world’s inevitably-much-larger energy footprint? Read the full article…
Global IP, Invention, Innovation And Benefit: What Would Thomas Jefferson Say? It seems that big data has invaded every aspect of everything. My 10x oscilloscope probe has an ROI associated with it and should it not meet or exceed that metric, it is discarded by a cadre of “blackbelts” in this or that fashionable trend armed with tablet computers and urgency. Try taking measurements without it—but that’s not the point or the theme of the transitory invasion. This is all done in the name of continuous improvement with the end goal of austerity. Save more, make more and Wall Street goes wild. So how then does this tie to IP and matters patentable? The underlying, controlling question that needs to be asked is how all of this austerity and lean operation ties to matters of law. In this guest commentary, the author looks at disparities in how patents are treated and how innovation is rewarded in the U.S. and abroad, and the implications for engineers and the global companies that employ them. Read the full article…
How2 Cut The Power Cord: Wireless Power Is Ready For Prime Time Wireless charging is not a new topic—it has been talked about for quite a while. Unfortunately, it has not seen widespread consumer acceptance. But according to the author, that’s about to change with the emergence of the AirFuel standard, class D amplifiers employing eGaN FETs, and a recently developed innovative approach to the design of transmission coils. The new products now being developed go beyond the power and distance limitations of the older inductively coupled, wireless charging technology and should usher in a new generation of wirelessly powered electronic devices and appliances. Read the full article…
An Engineer’s Guide To Mergers & Acquisitions In The Semiconductor Business Last year, merger mania in the semiconductor industry reached a record level of over $100 billion, sending a clear signal that Wall Street views silicon semiconductors largely as a commodity business. In this environment, semiconductor companies have taken on a range of corporate identities that reflect their positions as buyers or sellers, and as tech leaders or followers. The author uses terms such as hunters, targets, zombies, apple dumplings and super-specialized technologists to describe these company categories. While these labels are funny, the ways the different firms approach the semiconductor business has serious implications for engineers who work in the semiconductor industry or purchase its products. Read the full article…
This Misconception About Power Integrity Can Cost You Big Many power supply engineers mistakenly believe that power integrity (PI) is mainly a system-level issue and not a concern for the power supply design. But the reality is very different. If you're developing power solutions while working under this misconception, the resulting problems can be both hard to find and intractable to fix. When power integrity problems occur, they can cost your company big bucks and significant schedule delays. Ignoring PI issues when developing voltage regulators or when designing them into systems can lead to malfunctioning designs, time consuming design iterations and board spins to fix problems, stoppages in production, and other costly scenarios. These problems can be avoided if designers of voltage regulators, designers of the power distribution networks (PDNs) that carry the power and designers of the circuits that use the power take time to consider the impact that these power generating circuits will have on PI in the intended applications. Read the full article…
Misconceptions About GaN Create Barriers To Better Power Performance You’ve heard about gallium nitride (GaN) transistors’ superior performance, and you are excited. The samples finally arrive, and you put them onto your board. You turn on the power, you bring up the load, and you see… no better performance than before. Worse, you have switching problems that didn’t previously exist. These transistors are no good. What a sham. What is all the buzz about? Is it possible you are missing something? In this commentary, Adam Vašíček and Alexander James Young discuss misconceptions about GaN power transistors, important differences between these devices and the silicon power transistors, and why GaN devices should not be used as drop-in replacements for silicon power transistors. As the authors explain, systems need to be designed around the new GaN transistors in order to take advantage of their special characteristics. Read the full article…
In Pursuit of Energy Efficiency, Better Physics Can Trump Better Electronics In Phoenix, where Kevin Parmenter lives, daytime temperatures may rise above 108°F (42°C) on a regular basis and have gone as high as 120°F (49°C) in the summer, making air conditioning a necessity. So maintaining the performance of his three AC units through regular service such as recharging their refrigerant is critical. In the past such maintenance was relatively simple. But when he needed to have his AC recharged recently, he discovered that environmental considerations would make this task anything but simple. This led Kevin to begin a home project to upgrade the performance of one of his AC units. Initially, he envisioned this project as an opportunity to not only recharge the unit but also add features, which might possibly include energy-saving electronics. A combination of economics and environmental law led him down this path. But ultimately, he learned a lesson about another type of law—the laws of physics—and how the inherent physics of the application can influence how, when and where we apply power electronics. Read the full article…
Inverter Market Drives Advances In Power Component Technologies And Sales Because of continued strong interest in green energy, power electronics is experiencing significant growth. According to a recent study conducted by Yole Développement, the demand for power inverters in green applications such as electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and renewable energy systems is increasing rapidly. Starting from a total market size of almost $44 billion in 2012, the inverter market is expected to reach more than $55 billion in sales by 2016. As analysts Brice Le Gouic and Alexandre Avron discuss in this commentary, the rising demand for inverters is also spurring growth in sales of numerous electronic components as well as innovations that improve their performance. Read the full article…
Twenty Heartbeats — Engineering Is Art And Business A wealthy man dreamed of having a painting of his favorite horse. So he commissioned a renowned artist to do the painting. But when the artist kept him waiting for years, the man lost his patience. And when the artist finally produced the painting oh-too-quickly before the man’s eyes, the wealthy man grew angry. But as guest columnist Kevin Parmenter explains in recounting the tale of “Twenty Heartbeats,” the wealthy man ultimately learned that all was not as it seemed. In this column, Parmenter discusses the parallels between this story and modern management of tech businesses. In doing so, Parmenter makes the case that many organizational failures can be attributed to management’s poor understanding of the engineering process. Read the full article…
Debunking Solar Power Myths: Misconceptions About Solar System Metrics Could Hamper Solar Success In response to Ontario’s very favorable feed-in tariff, there’s been a “gold rush” of companies hopping onto the solar bandwagon. For a company such as Hybridyne, which supplies hardware to this industry, there is a concern that the investors paying for these new solar installations might find themselves disappointed with the low yield they could experience. Such disappointment is a potential threat to the solar industry as it may lead to unfavorable publicity or possible lawsuits, which could discourage future adoption of solar technology. At the core of this problem are several widely held misconceptions about the yield of photovoltaic (PV) systems. In this commentary, the author aims to debunk five myths concerning yield in a discussion that will be relevant to all those involved with the development, installation, and purchase of PV systems. On the development end, this includes power electronics engineers since the performance of the solar power inverter is central to this discussion. Read the full article…
The MDO4000: Is It Truly The Scope Revolution? On August 30, 2011, Tektronix unveiled the MDO4000 series oscilloscope with a built-in spectrum analyzer to much fanfare including the claim that this instrument is revolutionary. Since then, the author has been asked by colleagues and customers in the power electronics industry, if he believes the claim or thinks it’s hype? And if it is revolutionary, what makes it so? In this commentary, Steve Sandler attempts to answer these questions, while also discussing potential applications for the MDO4000 and various factors that will help engineers determine whether they need such an instrument. Read the full article…
Power Management 2.0: How PSiPs And PwrSoCs Are Changing Board-level Power Design Why is it important that the power supply in a package (PSiP) and the power supply on a chip (PwrSoC) are emerging on the power management scene? Many ask, “Do customers really need these miniature integrated power supplies?” Expecting a single answer, I found there are several, and in quite unexpected places. In his guest commentary, Arnold Alderman discusses the evolution of PSiP and PwrSoC devices and their expected impact on the power management landscape. Read the full article…
These Seven Trends May Change Power Design Dramatically New power semiconductor technologies such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) promise to rewrite the record books with respect to power supply performance. But for the component suppliers and the power system designers looking to exploit these new technologies, there will be a price to pay. They will need to adapt to rapidly rising switching frequencies by thinking more like RF/microwave designers, and developing/adopting the appropriate system-level simulation tools. In this commentary, the author identifies seven developments or trends that he believes will change the way power designers do their jobs in the near future. Read the full article… Want to read more commentary?
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