Electronica & SPS IPC Drives 2012

The enormity of overviewing Electronica and its companion SPS IPC Drives exhibitions is probably best illustrated by the fact that there exists a pre-Electronica press meeting, held by a handful of major players who determine to make an early and thus lasting impression of their products before the biennial event. To a large extent it is a move that cannot fail to capture attention but, in the final analysis, an overview tends to be of necessity a handful of outstandingly memorable products or the emergence of an almost unconscious, but strong repetition of approach, which seem destined to endure as milestones in the history of device or system design. The good news, first voiced at Electronica and repeated by those at SPS IPC Drives, was that enquiries and business were good. Even the passive component players, who despite biennial protest, seem doomed to occupy the most easterly of the Munich Messe's distant halls for enjoying footfall, actually reported not only brisk attendance, but also considerable volumes of enquiry when they reappeared at the smaller Nuremberg Messe. Material developments are one of the key basics to power-systems design. Accordingly at Electronica one of the more intriguing new developments has to be that of Gloucester-based Versarien, a new start company built on the LCS (lost-carbonate sintering) process research of the University of Liverpool. The VersarienCu (copper-based) product proves to be up to 10 times more effective at transferring heat energy than conventional micro-channel heat sinks of equivalent size with a heat transfer coefficient of approximately 150 to 200 kW/m²K being achieved. This process allows the creation of metallic materials with fine open interconnected pores that emulate natural structures and enable heat transfer levels that are way beyond those of alternative thermal management. The LCS process with copper has the metal mixed with non-metallic particles and compacted into a net or near net shape, before being heated to around 1000 °C under vacuum. The non-metal particles are either thermally decomposed or dissolved with the remaining material, before being finished and subjected to quality control. Versarian is now at work on developing LCS for a range of other metals. "The increased complexity of semiconductor devices and on-going reduction in their footprint means that heat generated at board level is rising sharply. If this heat cannot be dissipated effectively, then system reliability is put at risk," states Neill Ricketts, CEO and founder of Versarien Ltd. "Simultaneously the migration from incandescent lamps to solid state lighting, while offering many environmental and performance benefits, sets major challenges for engineers when it comes to dealing with the large quantity of heat produced." At SPS IPC Drives, Infineon's expert, Dr Martin Schulz is behind the development of TIM (thermal-interface material) to meet the increase of power density and extended lifetime expectations demanded of inverter designs. "Conductivity of the interface is not a constant parameter," he stresses, and the Infineon route through TIM is in the use of specially designed phase-change material, which can be mechanically more robust than the usual greases, achieving convenient methods for transport and handling. Choosing highly conductive filler materials results in excellent thermal conductivity, while reducing the grain size can achieve large contact areas with the thinnest possible layers between module and heat sink. Module makers can pre-apply TIM, claimed best in class for thermal resistance, to power modules. It is dry to touch and fully qualified. Among the advantages are reduced process time in manufacture, simplified mounting, increased system reliability and lifetime, with optimized thermal management and improved handling in both mounting and maintenance. If new materials are offering excellence for future device generations, one well-known material SiC (silicon carbide) seems to be emerging at last. It's a material once synonymous with Cree, but at this Electronica, appears to be moving from high end applications to mainstream adoption and spreading through the device families, as well as being combined in some uses with GaN (gallium nitride) by Nuremberg-based Semikron, championed by Dr Volker Demuth. Azzurro Semiconductors, led by Erwin Wolf, announced in October the production 200 mm GaN-on-Si blue LED wafers with excellent emission homogeneity and successful migration of GaN-on-Si at Epistar, based on AZZURRO's 150 mm technology. SiC was the talk of Fairchild with its TranSiC BJT (bipolar junction transistor) technology, enabling higher efficiency and higher power density for applications such as solar inverters, welding systems, and mobile power. ROHM has advanced the development of its SiC SBD (Schottky barrier diodes) and MOSFETs backed by the manufacturing capability of SiCrystal as part of the company. The combination of low-loss and high-voltage capability as well as fast recovery time makes these devices well suited for many applications, including PFC (power factor correction) circuits, converters, and inverters as used in EV/HEV and industrial units. ROHM's new high-voltage isolated SiC gate drivers facilitate low-power consumption and small designs. At Electronica, Renesas talked about SiC Schottky barrier diodes that also use Hitachi technology in high-output electronic systems such as air conditioners, communication base stations, and solar power arrays. The new device achieves approximately 40% reduction in power consumption compared to Renesas Electronics' existing conventional silicon power devices. In the UK a consortium, led by Oxford-based Prodrive is working on a SiC power transistors for electric and hybrid cars and development of a multi-voltage DC-DC converter. Latest research buzz from Georgia Institute of Technology working with SOLEIL, the French national synchrotron is to make graphene structures on nanometer-scale steps etched into silicon carbide creating a substantial electronic bandgap in the material suitable for room-temperature electronics. In a world where RP (renewables power) and E2 (energy efficiency) are dominant concepts, fittingly International Rectifier's StrongIRFET power MOSFETs feature ultra-low on-state resistance for industrial applications with target markets being battery packs, inverters, UPS (uninterruptible power supplies) solar inverters, forklift trucks, power tools, mobility scooters and ORing and Hot Swap applications. "This family of StrongIRFET devices offers a wide selection of benchmark performance MOSFETs for the industrial market," says David Schroeder, executive marketing director of IR's Power Management Devices Business Unit. "Diverse package offerings provides designers flexibility in selecting the most optimal device for their application," he adds, noting that as well as very low RDS(on), the high current ratings of the new devices improves system reliability and can save on part count when retrofitting lower performance devices. The other tendency that has been underway for a considerable time but shows no sign of let-up, is that of adding intelligence to control and sensors—a topic that involved four halls at Nuremberg, and would appear to be an expanding domain, demonstrated perhaps by the Amantys Power Drive Family of IGBT Module gate drivers now with its Power Insight Monitoring capabilities. Amantys, explains marketing director Richard Ord, has a VLSI research springboard, technology developed by Cambridge University's Dr Patrick Palmer and has also stirred ARM interest, which is a fairly powerful combination. But the crowning glory is undoubtedly Amantys Power Insight, the software platform for monitoring and control of power switching in medium- and high-voltage applications. Insight exports a series of six key signals (collector-emitter voltage, saturated collector-emitter voltage, gate-drive supply voltage, gate-emitter voltage, collector switching time, and gate drive ambient temperature) from the gate drive over existing fibre-optic links. It also provides on-board logging of switching cycles (transitions, short-circuit failures, over-temperature events, and gate-drive supply failures) key to the IGBT module's lifetime. The IGBT drivers, it is worth noting, support modules from all the leading power transistor manufacturers, giving an independent source of drop-in replacement drives for existing commercially available products and Amantys is now offering IGBT modules operating at 1.2, l.7, and 3.3 kV. It is Amantys' approach to be able to accommodate all leading power transistor manufactures that can similarly be found at CUI's award winning NDM2P series, the latest addition in CUI's Novum Advanced Power product line, which focuses solely on the design and development of leading-edge power platforms. These modules set industry benchmarks in efficiency and transient response, allowing manufacturers of next-generation ICT (information and communication technology) equipment to maximize performance in their designs. The digital POL (point of load) DC-DC modules that deliver over 95% peak efficiency in applications employ distributed power architecture. The modules, available in 12-, 25-, and 50-A versions, are pin and function compatible with the 3E POL BMR46X series from Ericsson Power Modules, a division of Ericsson, which is the world's leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. This compatibility enables OEMs to address interoperability challenges, reduce time to market, and decrease supply-chain risk for these leading-edge digital POL products. The modules also incorporate auto compensation, autonomously balancing the trade-offs between dynamic performance and system stability. With this feature, designers are able to bypass the traditional practice of building-in margins to account for factors such as component ageing, manufacturing variations, and temperature, which inevitably lead to higher component cost and longer design cycles. The NDM2Z's auto compensation allows the module to dynamically set optimum stability in real time as conditions change. The module's features include active current sharing, voltage sequencing, voltage tracking, synchronization and phase spreading, programmable soft start and stop, as well as a host of monitoring capabilities. All features are dynamically programmable via PMBus commands or through CUI's simple, easy to use GUI. The NDM2Z series is the first to be released by CUI as part of the cooperation with Ericsson announced in July 2011. The agreement with Ericsson has future plans to co-develop modules outside the existing range of 12 to 50 A. Mark Adams, CUI's senior VP notes, "Interoperability between digital POL modules is a major challenge in this industry. We believe that our cooperation with Ericsson opens the digital power market to a wider set of customers, providing a viable second source." Swiss LEM at SPS IPC Drives is also on the intelligence route in its new series of current transducers where the innovative feature of the HO series is programmable over-current detection, separate from the main current measurement. Using a single measurement range (for both detection and measuring functions), if the transducer must detect an over-current condition at, say, five times the nominal full-scale value, the measurement range must extend up to the over-current limit, reducing available accuracy within the nominal range. Separate over-current detection, with a programmable threshold, ensures maximum resolution is maintained up to the nominal full-scale value. LEM's HO-series transducer operates from a single supply voltage at 3.3 or 5V, occupies a PCB-mountable, small (12- x 23- x 12-mm), 5-g package incorporating three separate primary conductors to allow for multi-range measurement configurations (enabling nominal measurement as low as 2.67 A_RMS when programmed at 8 A_RMS for the nominal range). Versions of the HO-series transducers will be available for both through-hole and surface-mount assembly. The construction provides long creepage and clearance distances (8 mm) and a CTI (comparative tracking index) of 600 for excellent insulation. The high degree of programmability and flexibility means designers can use a unique reference in a wide range of circuit configurations, simplifying designs, and reducing parts stock-holding. As well as contributing to the efficiency of variable speed drives, LEM's HO model suits a range of applications from solar-power inverters, solar combiner boxes, uninterruptible and switch-mode power supplies, air conditioning, home appliances, static converters for DC motor drives, and robotics. There was another angle to the material developing, sensor rich, control and communicating intelligence of both Electronica and SPS IPC drives 2012 and that is the apparent steady growth of eCl@ss. eCl@ss is today's engineering language according to Georg Franz Kalandra, senior consultant at Vienna-based Paradine, an internationally operating software and consulting company active in master data management, product classification, and product-data management. Paradine offers a wide range of specialised consulting services as well as software, working and preaching a 4-year development the Pan-PEPPOL (European Public Procurement Online) project developed and implementing technology standards that align business processes for electronic procurement across all governments within Europe, and aim to expand market connectivity and interoperability between eProcurement communities. The results of the project can be found in the EIA repository (for pilot users) and in the EC deliverables list for internal use. The increasing role seen for M2M (Machine to Machine) communications in the IoT (Internet of Things) and emerging White Space, finds Microchip Technology adding a 25% performance boost to its PI32/MX1/MX2 series. To date the smallest 32-bit MCU as well as lowest cost PIC32 MCU it includes up to 128k Flash, 32kRAM and touch-sensing, audio processing and advanced control application integrated peripherals and 4-channel DMA. Devices are widely targeted for low-cost applications in consumer and auto markets, as music-player docks, noise-cancelling headsets, clock radios, entertainment-system sound bars, or touch screens with buttons and sliders, graphic displays and USB device/host applications as well as including industrial-grade noise-cancelling headsets and touch-sensing capabilities in medical and industrial displays. Sumit Mitra, Microchip's VP of MCU32 division says that the improved performance being added enables designers to overcome speed bottlenecks.  "Additionally, designers can develop a broad range of products for the consumer, industrial, medical and other markets that require the combination of audio, touch-sensing and embedded-control capabilities, as well as USB communication, all with one MCU." Swissbit VP of sales and marketing, Tommaso Rando, had on offer at Electronica the Swissbit X500 series industrial SATA II SSD, the F-200 Series CFast card, and the C400 series Compact Flash card. But it offers an enormous product range from industrial DRAM memory and Flash industrial storage products, SSD with (with PATA interface) m-SATA, slim-SATA, SD, uSD, MMC and USB (where some presentations were on disc, with only two drives, and mostly paper) targeting industrial, automotive, rail, wired telecom, medical, and aerospace and defence electronics. Straw in the wind perhaps at Electronica was that nearly every presentation was on memory stick, which makes one realise just how paper becomes electronic. But not so at SPS IPC Drives, where there were perhaps a few USB such as the LEM one, but most presentation were on disc (BASF) or paper. The outstanding USB, of course, was on the presentation of HEITEC (some 800 employees at 18 German offices, offering automation production system, measurement and test engineering electronics, software, documentation and information management) and its news that it has acquired the electronic packaging systems of Rittal (11,500 people, 11 production sites, 64 subsidiaries and 40 agencies). The deal is attributed to there being a mini boom in the German electronic systems markets which HEITEC will focus on servicing, while Ritual is preoccupied by meeting demand in its international markets. Curiously HEITEC have a Mavus vest with mobile electronics, camera, display headset and conference software which allows hands free, over shoulder viewing for training, servicing, maintenance, trouble-shooting and inspection. It calls to mind strongly the health Five vital signs monitoring shirt from Maxim Integrated that was announced in the pre-Electronica press show. Great companies clearly think along similar paths, though the fascination of detail is the difference. Power Systems Design