Welcome to the June edition of Power Systems Design Europe. June is PCIM month this year, which ties in well with this month’s Special Report on Motors, Drives and Controls. While power, quite rightly takes centre stage at Nuremberg, there is a decent presence from the automation industry there too – after all PCIM does stand for Power, Control and Intelligent Motion. I’ll be in Nuremberg right through the exhibition, so if your company is making a launch there, drop me an email and I’ll try pop by and help get the news out.
This year, the show seems to be more popular than ever, with 40,000 square meters of exhibition space, and more than 650 companies from 27 countries exhibiting. On the floor there will also be two stages when companies will be presenting their latest advances in technology. Alongside the normal Technology Stage, for the first time there will be an AI & Data Centres Stage. The program for the latter will feature 40 presentations on the topics of “AI for Power Electronics” and “Power Electronics for Data Centers”. Lisette Hausser, Vice President PCIM at Mesago Messe Frankfurt GmbH explains the inclusion of the new stage by saying, “The AI & Data Centers Stage is our first venture into providing a central platform for in-depth industry knowledge and cutting-edge inspiration on the topic of artificial intelligence. Visitors to the PCIM Expo can look forward to learning about the latest developments – from AI-powered design and monitoring processes to innovative energy management and power supply systems for data centers.”
AI and data centres are perhaps the two most topical subjects across the engineering world at the moment, so I plan to take some time out and try catch up with at least a few of the presentations.
As for this month’s magazine, the first article in the Special Report was contributed by Rutronik. The article looks at the role of GaN in motor controls, and how the wide bandgap material has the potential to deliver smaller, responsive and efficient controllers. The company then goes on the demonstrate a practical drive circuit using GaN devices and PSoC controllers from Infineon, and finally how to quickly test the circuit using a new modular controller board and software.
The next article in the Special Report was contributed by pSemi, and it is a really interesting look at humanoid robots. The article explores modern robotic power distribution architectures and examines how advanced charge pump–based converters enable compact, high efficiency power solutions for space and thermally constrained subsystems, such as the dexterous robotic hand.
As well as the Special Report, this month’s magazine will also feature general articles of interest to power engineers in our Tech Focus section, as well as the latest news and views from the industry.
Best Regards
Ally Winning
European Editor, PSD
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